Co Clare Fine Gael deputy Pat Breen came under fire yesterday from a rights group for sex abuse victims, after inquiring in the Dáil about when a convicted sex offender jailed four years ago would qualify for early release.
In a written Dáil question to the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, Mr Breen asked when 74-year-old bachelor farmer Joseph Nugent, from Dromellihy, Cree, Co Clare, who was jailed four years ago, would be eligible for early release.
He had been found guilty in 2002 of conducting a six-year-long campaign of abuse against a neighbour's boy from the age of eight, and found guilty of buggery with the child 23 times and indecently assaulting him on a further 24 occasions. He was given a further six-year concurrent sentence in 2004 for other offences.
In a Dáil reply, Mr McDowell said: "In view of the very serious nature of these offences, I am not prepared to authorise any form of early release in this case."
Five years ago, the then Progressive Democrats minister of state Bobby Molloy resigned after it emerged he had written on numerous occasions to then minister for justice John O'Donoghue about a Galway paedophile, at the request of the Galwayman's family.
A farmer of 65 acres, seven miles from Kilrush, Nugent, said Judge Bryan McMahon, had "acted in a premeditated and predatory nature for his own self-gratification and beastly pleasure" and had been physically violent to the boy.
Mr Breen said yesterday that he tabled the Dáil question after being approached by a relative of Nugent at a clinic to inquire into the question of early release. "I was not making representations on behalf of Nugent and I wouldn't be in favour of an early release in the case.
"It was a terrible case. I put down the question to establish the facts and receive factual information in response to a request from a relative of Nugent," he said, adding that he had not been aware of all the facts of the case.
Last night, Fine Gael said Mr Breen is on business in the US, but it rejected any comparison with the difficulties that led to the resignation four years ago of Mr Molloy.
Mr Molloy had written on eight occasions to Mr O'Donoghue about a constituent jailed for abusing his daughter, while one of Mr Molloy's staff had also made an unsuccessful effort to ask the judge hearing the case if he had received an affidavit from the man's sister.
"Pat Breen's actions were a factual inquiry, on behalf of a relative. It is not the same as a minister, or somebody on his behalf, making direct contact with a judge," a Fine Gael spokeswoman told The Irish Times last night.
Colm O'Gorman of the One in Four group which represents abuse victims said yesterday: "I am not saying that Deputy Breen was trying to manipulate the system by placing this question, but it is difficult to see how it could be appropriate."
Mr O'Gorman added: "The most benign take on this matter is that Deputy Breen made a representation on behalf of a constituent without knowing the full facts of the case."