Government backed bid to get Connolly sacked

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell got Government backing for a campaign to have Frank Connolly sacked as executive director of the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI).

The Green Party and Sinn Féin called on Mr McDowell to resign, saying he had “recklessly abused power”. Fine Gael and Labour were also fiercely critical. But Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tánaiste Mary Harney fully supported Mr McDowell.

Vigorously defending his actions in the affair, Mr McDowell told the Dáil yesterday the CPI, an independent group established in February to investigate political and business issues, was a body “which, in subversive hands, has the capacity to gravely undermine the authority of the State”.