Nazi jibe to crime bill: McDowell’s latest row

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell was plunged into fresh controversy last night when the opposition reacted furiously to his plans to introduce a huge raft of late amendments to tough criminal justice legislation.

An abject apology to Richard Bruton yesterday was seen as having drawn a line under his outburst the previous day, when he had likened the Fine Gael TD to Joseph Goebbels.

However, within minutes of Mr McDowell crossing the Dáil chamber to shake hands with Mr Bruton, a new row had erupted over the Criminal Justice Bill.

Yesterday, two years after it was first published, the minister introduced some 340 pages of changes.

Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin immediately called on the minister to withdraw the bill.

The Department of Justice pointed out last night that the minister signalled all these new changes last November. They include:

* Measures to crack down on organised crime.

* New Anti-Social Behaviour Orders.

* A more stringent sentencing regime for drug traffickers.

* The first use in Ireland of electronic tagging.

* A ban on fireworks.

* Firearms provisions, including offences for possession of sawn-off shotguns.

* Mandatory sentences of between five and 10 years for some firearms offences.

* A gun amnesty.

A spokeswoman said the minister wants the bill to become law before summer and insisted there would be ample time for a full debate.

While the opposition will broadly support many of the measures, they criticised the volume being added to the bill at such a late stage.

Fine Gael’s Jim O’Keeffe said Mr McDowell had adopted a “cavalier approach to parliamentary privilege”.

A Labour Party spokesman warned of the debate being guillotined as happened with the controversial Garda Bill last year.

Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh said it was an outrageous abuse of process.

While Mr McDowell’s early apology yesterday did much to dampen the controversy over his Goebbel remarks, the fallout continued last night.

During an hour-long debate, members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party criticised Mr McDowell over his intemperate attack on Mr Bruton; his comparison of the FF-PD coalition to a sandwich and his handling of the crime situation.

A number of backbench FF TDs aired concerns that the party has abrogated responsibility to the PDs in the two most crucial issues in the next election - justice and health.