McDowell tells critics: ‘I’m a team player’

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday strongly denied his reputation for bluntness and controversy could damage the Government after he becomes Tánaiste.

Speaking as he was installed as the Progressive Democrat’s new leader, Mr McDowell dismissed concern his temperament could become an issue in the run-up to the looming

general election.

With Taoiseach Bertie Ahern set to formally make Mr McDowell Tánaiste tomorrow, the Justice Minister insisted he was committed to playing his role in the Government team.

“I have been sitting now at the Cabinet table for seven years and during all that period I think all my colleagues in Government would bear testimony to the fact that I’m a team player,” he said.

Mr McDowell has been embroiled in a string of high-profile controversies as Justice Minister and had to apologise earlier this year for comparing Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Richard Bruton to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

Mr McDowell stressed that since 1999 he had worked closely with the Taoiseach as Attorney General and Justice Minister and would continue that relationship as Tánaiste and PD leader.

Asked if he would now lay off the “red meat” as Tánaiste — a reference to his outspoken nature — Mr McDowell ambiguously replied that “I will not disappoint the media.”

The new PD leader said he had willingly given the assurances sought by Mr Ahern that the PDs would go to the end of the Coalition’s full term which expires in June.

“I have no doubt the Progressive Democrats deserve the trust that has been put in them,” Mr McDowell said.

Speaking at an EU summit in Helsinki, Mr Ahern stressed his working relationship with Mr McDowell was based on shared policy objectives in areas like health and justice and not on personalities.

“This is not and never is about personalities,” the Taoiseach said as he congratulated Mr McDowell on becoming leader.

Mr McDowell, the third leader of the PDs since the party was founded in 1986, said he was confident of doubling the parliamentary representation they now have of eight TDs and five Senators.

Mr McDowell pledged the PDs would be a radical party of change under his leadership and not huddle around the crowded centre ground of politics like other parties.

He rejected any post-election pact with Fine Gael and Labour insisting a Rainbow government would be a “slump coalition.”