McDowell is attacking mechanisms which help uncover corruption

THERE are so many loose cannons rolling around the deck of the State’s ship at the moment that we will be lucky if one of them does not do some real damage one of these days.

We have been witnessing a degree of arrogance that becomes more breathtaking by the day, ever since the Cheltenham Two took off after the horses while the Dáil was undermining the Freedom of Information Act.

Bertie came down heavy on the Irish media in France, while Martin Cullen came out essentially advocating that the rights of non-smokers should be ignored and the Laffoy Commission has been torpedoed.

Yet the Cabinet are going to take days to allow their spin doctors to come up with a response to Ms Justice Laffoy's letter of resignation, while the Minister for Justice is threatening to jail gardaí and journalists for telling the truth.

Michael McDowell complained that "information in respect to very serious matters was being put into the hands of journalists in circumstances which certainly suggested very strongly at the time that it was done for reward".

He went on to say that "there have been instances of a tiny minority of corrupt gardaí taking bribes".

Indeed, one highly-decorated garda was jailed for passing on information to the gang that murdered Veronica Guerin, and nobody in his right mind would criticise the minister for trying to stamp out that kind of conduct, nor for trying to eliminate gardaí giving out information for reward.

What he is trying to target, he explained, is "where somebody is leaking information for reward, or where somebody leaks information which seriously compromises a criminal investigation, or where somebody leaks information which seriously damages somebody else's privacy or confidentially, or where they do something which damages the security of the State".

All of these things have happened. He was not talking about the garda press officers giving out certain information about accidents or robberies.

"They have to for the purposes of assuring the public collectively that they are doing their job," the minister said. But the problem is that he seems to think that only the designated public relations officers should give out this information.

"It can't be for individual gardaí to decide what the interests of the force are," he emphasised. Now we are getting to it. They are too damn stupid goes the reasoning and it will be for Michael and his likes, the intelligent people, to make such decisions. If he was half as intelligent as he seems to assume he would not have dug himself into this hole.

Probably all journalists know gardaí who will provide them with information in the best interest of the force.

I would not normally be writing on such matters, but on three different occasions I received tips from gardaí that led to front-page stories, one of which had international implications that made the front pages abroad. I never paid a penny for any of those stories, nor was there even the slightest suggestion that the gardaí were looking for money. They were acting in the best interest of the force.

If there are some rotten apples who are trying to sell information for gain, or compromise investigations, they should of course be weeded out of the force.

There are many laudable aspects to the proposed legislation, but the minister has marred the whole thing with his reckless charges suggesting that bribery and corruption are rife among some journalists and gardaí. He has tarred both the gardaí and journalists at the same time.

We have a whole series of tribunals investigating matters that have arisen because of the culture of secrecy that allowed these things to fester, from child abuse, to tax evasion, to the misappropriation of political funds, to political corruption. Instead of attacking corruption, McDowell is attacking the mechanism that has allowed the corruption to be exposed. In the process he is exhibiting a mentality that is extremely dangerous.

"I know what I knew as Attorney General," he told Pat Kenny. "I know what I have seen on files." He knows that journalists are bribing gardaí, which is a criminal offence.

When challenged to produce this information, he rubbished the challenge.

"I am not supposed to just throw out into the public domain facts which haven't been proven in court about people."

But that was exactly what he had just done. Worse, he did in a general and unspecified way that essentially questioned the integrity of all gardaí and all journalists to whom they have ever given any information.

In the process he has done himself, the gardaí and the whole judicial system a serious disservice.

IF any journalist has bribed a garda, that is a crime. Why have such criminals in the guise of journalists not been prosecuted for subverting An Garda Síochána? They are also subverting journalism. They should be prosecuted and any garda accepting such money should be summarily dismissed from the force.

Confronted with such evidence, people might then agree about the need for the more controversial aspects of the legislation being proposed. Our system of justice cannot tolerate either crooked judges or bent police.

Michael McDowell has usually been very careful with words.

Anybody can slip up in a live interview and use the wrong word inadvertently. When he said that he knows, did he really mean that he strongly suspects? There is a huge difference between knowing something and just suspecting it.

For instance, he initially used the words "suggested very strongly", but then, intoxicated with his own verbosity, he soon exhibited a certainty that bordered on assumed infallibility. He sees no need to justify himself by substantiating his allegations.

The only thing that people have to go on is that the minister believes that a garda leaked information to the Daily Star that his son had been assaulted in the street. Anybody who thinks that Gerard Colleran, the editor, would pay for such information clearly does not know him, and even more obviously has never worked for him. But Michael was so annoyed that he demanded the removal of his garda protection and this led to another incident.

The whole thing looks highly personal and even he realises that this looks wrong. If he has good grounds for his proposals, he is going to have to justify them.

"I know what I know and I am very clear about what I know, and frankly they're not entitled to some of the information that I have. And they will just have to take it on that basis." What is he saying, that we should just trust him and his Government colleagues? This is the Government that shamelessly betrayed the trust of the electorate last year by lying about the country's finances, and making rash, dishonest election promises, especially in relations to schools and the health services.

If he thinks that people should trust this bunch, then he is seriously mistaken. If we mindlessly sow this ill wind, we will deserve to reap the whirlwind that will inevitably follow.