McDowell had no 'hand, act or part' in arrest

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell strongly denied that he was involved in the arrest of a journalist over the leaking of a report into a major miscarriage of justice.

He recalled that he had told the House on Wednesday that he had no "hand, act or part" in the arrest of anybody regarding the matter. "On my honour, I tell this House that what I said here yesterday was totally true." Mr McDowell said the secretary general of his department did make a complaint to the Garda on the matter.

Ruairí Quinn (Labour, Dublin South East) asked if the Minister seriously suspected that the department would take that action without his knowledge.

Mr McDowell said the secretary general became aware that it was proposed to publish an article based on a leaked report.

"The newspaper was warned that it was a criminal offence to publish the material before it was published. The secretary general, in those circumstances, decided himself that when the publication took place, he would make a complaint to members of the Garda."

The Minister added it was expressly put to him that it would be inappropriate for him to be the person who made a decision on the matter.

The journalist, Mick McCaffrey, worked for the Evening Herald last year when the newspaper published an article on the report by the commission on how a homeless drug addict "confessed" to and was wrongly charged with the murders of two psychiatric patients.

Mr McCaffrey was arrested along with a detective sergeant. They were later released and a file is to be sent to the DPP.

Yesterday, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed that the journalist's arrest meant they had moved to a position where, effectively, there was an authoritarian regime in the State.

He found it somewhat "Irish", he said, that when Fine Gael prepared a Private Member's Bill on the "C" case, it was leaked to a national newspaper from the Department of Justice.

"The Minister confirmed he handed a copy of an application form for a passport to a journalist, which was removed from a department file. In this case, this journalist has been arrested. I would like to know from the Minister if this reporter's arrest arose from a complaint made by the Minister or by his department to the Garda." Denying any involvement, Mr McDowell agreed he had met Mr McCaffrey on a number of occasions, adding that he was a relative of an officer in the department.

"I have met Mick McCaffrey, whom I like a lot, and I think he is a very decent fellow." He added that he had no idea, when meeting Mr McCaffrey, about what was going to happen to him.

"I like him very much as an individual. He is a decent, hardworking journalist."

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte noted that no action had been taken as a result of the commission of inquiry on the issue.

"The only action that has happened is that a journalist has been arrested for breaking the deadline. He did not inaccurately report the contents of the report. He did not in any way misrepresent it." Mr McDowell said it was not a case where they were dealing with somebody who had the final report.

"We are dealing with a case where somebody had a draft, which was submitted to them in confidence, with a warning attached that they would commit a serious offence if they disclosed that draft to a third party."

John Gormley (Green Party, Dublin South East) said that if Watergate had happened in the Republic, Bernstein and Woodward might have been arrested.

"There is a whiff of dictatorship coming from the benches opposite. I regret I must say that, but this is a serious matter."

Mr McDowell replied that "if politics in Dublin South East become so vindictive that the truth can be ignored, and allegations are thrown around the House, then that is sad".