Minister accuses Gormley's 'friends' [& Indymedia.ie]
dubli...@gmail.com
by Michael O'Regan / Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0310/3947914005HM8DLROW.html
There were heated exchanges when the Minister for Justice claimed a
Green Party TD's "type of people" had vandalised the PD offices during
the recent Dublin riots.
Michael McDowell was replying to questions on the riot from his Dublin
South East constituency colleague, John Gormley. Mr Gormley asked the
Minister why it was not possible to monitor the internet traffic
showing there would be trouble in Dublin, if the gardaí had such
resources at their disposal.
He added that he had seen the sites telling people not to go into town.
The Minister replied: "I am not acquainted with the websites that
Deputy Gormley stares at in the early hours of the morning, but one of
them, www.indymedia.ie, has in the past produced interesting footage.
On this occasion, it produced footage from outside of the Progressive
Democrats party offices being ransacked by a group of Deputy Gormley's
type of people."
Mr Gormley said the remark was out of line, but Mr McDowell insisted
that what he had seen made interesting viewing. "We downloaded it and
sent it to the Garda for investigation."
Mr Gormley said the Minister could not abuse Dáil privilege by making
serious allegations against him. "He is out of order. I would not
condone any such behaviour and I ask him to withdraw his remark."
Mr McDowell insisted that "the anoraked group which descended on my
party's offices would be the deputy's".
Labour spokesman Joe Costello said: "The Minister is confusing Deputy
Gormley's supporters with the Taoiseach's followers."
Mr Gormley said that the Minister's comments were outrageous. "He has
abused Dáil privilege in the past to engage in this kind of slur." He
accused the Minister of regularly abusing Dáil privilege and having
nothing but contempt for the House.
Fine Gael spokesman Jim O'Keeffe advised Mr Gormley not to take the
Minister seriously. "His behaviour is par for the course." Mr McDowell
remarked: "There was muesli in the air and open-toed sandals on the
street."
Earlier, the Minister said that, contrary to what had been published in
the newspapers, the number of gardaí deployed for President George W
Bush's visits to Shannon was smaller than the number initially deployed
to police the Love Ulster rally.
Pressed on the issue by Mr Gormley, the Minister said: "If 500 of his [
Mr Gormley's] friends had turned up, he would be the first to say if
there had been an incident, that I was unprepared for it."