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.

Few will quibble with Labour’s assertion that Mr McDowell has set a dangerous precedent. The revelation puts a worrying perspective on the provision inserted in the Garda Bill allowing him to receive on demand any document relating to any ongoing garda investigation.

Amid mounting calls for his resignation, Mr McDowell stands accused of undermining the justice system by using the cloak of Dáil privilege to allege that Frank Connolly travelled to Colombia on a false passport with a senior IRA man in 2001 as part of a plot to provide terrorists with bomb-making information in return for cash.

In the face of scathing criticism, Mr McDowell, who reiterates that he was protecting the security of the State against subversion, emphasised yesterday that he stood over “every word” of his written reply to Independent TD Finian McGrath about attempts to undermine the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI) which Mr Connolly runs.

There is grave public disquiet about Mr McDowell’s role in this affair. His statements give rise to serious questions.

A legal expert has accused him of adopting police state tactics, arguing that it was unacceptable for Dáil privilege to be used in these circumstances.

In the words of Professor Dermot Walsh, director of the Centre of Criminal Justice at the University of Limerick, there is something legally uncomfortable about a Minister for Justice asking the public to trust him on the basis of information supplied by the gardaí and known only to him.

Characteristically, Mr McDowell rejects what he terms the “constant theme” that unless matters were proven in the courts, they could not be the subject of comment by a Justice Minister.

Arguably, it flies in the face of logic to describe the alleged visit to the FARC stronghold as subversive to Ireland, whatever about Colombia.

So far, Frank Connolly, who denies the Colombian visit, has not been charged by the DPP. He has not been brought before the courts. Nor has he been convicted.

Arguably, if he did not visit Colombia, he has been gravely wronged. Yet, the journalist’s role in this scenario is far from clear. To date, he has been less than forthright in his answers. It is time for him to come clean and give a full account of his involvement, if any, in the murky Columbian affair.

It is disingenuous of Mr McDowell to claim he was not getting at anyone. Clearly, Connolly’s name has been blackened in the public mind. And by revealing confidential garda documents on the case to Irish- American philanthropist Chuck Feeny, the minister effectively convinced him to withdraw funding from the CPI.

Doubtless, if Mr McDowell was sitting on the opposition benches, he would be vituperative in his condemnation of the kind of tactics he himself has employed.

Justice demands that a person is innocent until found guilty in a court of law. That precept is a central plank of any democracy.

The rights of every citizen to their good name must be carefully balanced against the public’s right to protection from subversion.

By any standard, the tactics employed by Mr McDowell have opened up an appalling legal vista.