FF councillor calls on Taoiseach to sack O’Dea

A FIANNA Fáil county councillor yesterday called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to sack Defence Minister Willie O’Dea for making representations on behalf of prisoners who included a rapist and a man jailed for attempted murder.

Cllr Noreen Ryan, who ran with Mr O’Dea as a candidate in the last general election in Limerick East, said criminals should not be “aided” by any member of the Government, or the Fianna Fáil party.

She said standards had dropped to gain a big vote.

Ms Ryan said: “Mr Cowen, the buck stops with you. You have the privilege of bestowing or withdrawing serious power in the hands of some of few standards and dangerous practices in your government.”

She said it was very hard for her and others like her to accept Mr O’Dea’s contacts on behalf of relatives of people in jail for serious crime.

Ms Ryan told the Taoiseach: “You too will be judged on the choices you now make.”

Information released earlier this week by the Department of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act showed Mr O’Dea had forwarded requests for special treatment for criminals.

Mr O’Dea, in response to the revelations, said: “A great majority were sent on behalf of elderly or ill parents seeking transfers for their children to Limerick prison from prisons in Dublin or Cork so they could visit them.”

Last July, Mr O’Dea called for an outright ban on politicians making such representations after it emerged 37 of his colleagues had lobbied in this area.

A spokeswoman for Mr O’Dea said he did not vet the requests in the four years he served in the Department of Justice as a junior minister and merely passed them on to the appropriate section.