All out of step except the minister?

Michael McDowell is entitled to think that he is doing a good job, but it is puerile on his part to dismiss his critics as “a whole load of armchair generals who know nothing”, or are “blindly ignorant of the facts”.

He complained in broadcast interviews yesterday that a group of journalists are “pursuing their own agendas” and spouting “gratuitous and offensive nonsense”.

Some of the minister’s comments sounded almost hysterically defensive.

He accused the media of “social cannibalism”, as he dismissed some of “the more outrageous suggestions” made during last week as having appeared “to have been dreamt up on the back of a beer mat”.

Of course, the minister is justified in not adopting a knee-jerk reaction to events, or merely acting for the sake of appearing to do something. He was particularly critical of suggestions that he should introduce legislation to ensure that the Special Criminal Court deals with gangland crimes.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has the independent authority to refer any specific case to the Special Criminal Court, if he thinks it necessary. In the circumstances the minister is content to rely on the discretion of the DPP.

Mr McDowell argued that the criminal justice system “is functioning well”. The gardaí have made considerable progress in the 17 gangland killings this year, he said, even though charges have been brought in only two of those cases.

“In some cases,” he explained, “they can’t get the admissible evidence to court.”

He virtually dismissed such gangland activity as “ordinary crime”.

He has a responsibility to explain to the public what is happening in relation to crime. The minister was particularly critical of reports suggesting that there was an external threat of violence to the witnesses who recanted on their evidence last week. He explained that this “is unlikely to be the case”.

When asked to expand on this, his response was to propose that the interviewer depend on the media. He actually suggested that the interviewer would get an idea by reading The Sunday Business Post.

In the Dáil, when Deputy Bernard Durcan asked about a report that a witness heading to court in Dublin had been assaulted at Limerick Railroad Station last week, Mr McDowell replied that the deputy would be embarrassed on learning the facts of the situation.

Why did the minister not explain that situation to the Dáil at the time? He justified his evasive Dáil reply by explaining yesterday on RTÉ that the witness in question was beaten up by a relative of the murder victim, not by somebody connected with the accused.

Surely the minister was not suggesting such an assault was any less serious than if somebody connected with the accused had been responsible? Intimidation of a witness is wrong in any circumstances and our system of justice will quickly disintegrate if such behaviour is ignored.

That cannot be dismissed as just the view of media commentators or some gardaí pursuing their own agendas, because it is also the solemn view of a judge who warned earlier this year that “we are going to live in a state of social anarchy and chaos if this kind of thing goes on”.