THE Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, in a series of written Dail replies, confirmed her statements last week about the Anthony Duncan extradition warrant controversy.

Mrs Owen said she was apprised by an official of her Department of developments in the District Court where there was a problem about the warrant on April 13th. She asked for a full report from the Garda through the Secretary of the Department, and the Garda submitted this report on May 21st.

The replies were in response to queries from Opposition deputies.

On the Order of Business earlier, Opposition deputies complained that questions to the Taoiseach relating to the role of the Attorney General had been ruled out of order.

The Fianna Fail spokesman on law reform said. "There seems to be some attempt here to ring fence the Attorney General and absolve him from all blame."

An attempt by Mr O'Dea to have an emergency debate failed when the Lens Cheann Comhairle, Mr Joe Jacob, ruled him out of order.

Mr O'Dea wanted to debate the "lack of a credible explanation by the Government for its failure over a six week period to inform the Dail and the public of the true or most probable reason" for the defect in the warrant. He said the Government unfairly tried to place the entire blame for the matter on the Garda.

Patrick Smyth, in Brussels, adds

The Minister for Justice yesterday strongly reiterated her contention that she had been told that the Garda were responsible for the failed Duncan extradition only on May 21st.

And she called on the leader of Fianna Fail, Mr Bertie Ahern, to accept the "veracity of the gardai" in their rejection of a newspaper article claiming she had known of the decision within days of the court case. "I am asking Mr Ahern not to cast aspersions on the gardai" Mrs Owen said.

Mrs Owen was talking to journalists during a fact finding visit to the headquarters of the EU's embryonic police intelligence centre, Europol, in The Hague. The Minister will have political responsibility for the organisation when she assumes the presidency of the EU's Justice Ministers' Council at the beginning of July and she defended the timing of the visit as "vital" preparatory work for the presidency.

Mrs Owen rejected suggestions she should have spoken earlier about the extradition issue "I asked gardai to carry out an investigation. It would have been irresponsible of me, a Minister for Justice, to make a statement before the inquiry was over."

She said she believed that "the controversy is over and the file now closed," but it was still important to learn the lessons and implement additional safety measures to ensure it could not happen again.