McDowell accused of attacking RTE

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell was accused of attacking RTÉ by Labour spokeswoman Joan Burton. She said: "He seems to have an open line to Pat Kenny's radio programme. Therefore, if the Minister wants to appear on RTÉ, I am quite sure that, as he has done so often before, Pat Kenny will give him another two, three or four hours in which to do so. "The Minister can threaten all he likes but the fact remains that he has questions to answer," she added.

Referring to this week's Prime Time programme about the purchase of a site for a new prison in north Dublin, Ms Burton said: "The project is ill-conceived and ill-thought out. We will throw away the €30 million we spent on developing the women's prison at Mountjoy as well as the many millions that were spent on improvements to the juvenile institution there."

Ms Burton said that should the new prison be developed in north Co Dublin, the road infrastructure in the area was totally inadequate.

She added: "I represent a constituency where I deal with new developments monthly, but the Government's rule on infrastructure is to build the item first, whether it be a house, factory or prison.

"If one marches and shouts long enough, a few facilities will be thrown [in] after 10 years."