Documents leak - McDowell set dangerous precedent

FAR-REACHING implications flow from the revelation that Justice Minister Michael McDowell passed confidential documents to a newspaper for its story on allegations that journalist Frank Connolly applied for a false passport.

Astonishingly, Mr McDowell now admits that he personally leaked the bogus passport application form to the Irish Independent.

From a minister who threatened to sack and jail for five years any garda who provided information to the media, this scenario is breathtaking in its cynicism.