Michael McDowell (politician)

McDowell authorised the purchase of a farm in north , at Thornton Hall, on behalf of the state, to build a proposed prison. However this was more expensive compared to the value of similar land close by, and several state organisations already had land closer to the city which might have been used for the same purpose.^[24]

He sped up the of failed asylum seekers, including one case in 2005 where a student, Kunle Eluhanla, was deported back to Nigeria while preparing for his Leaving Certificate examinations. After a public outcry led by Eluhanla's classmates, McDowell allowed his return, but not that of others.^[25][26]

In February 2005, he accused the Sinn Féin leaders , Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris of being members of the Provisional IRA Army Council.^[27] The allegations were denied by Adams, McGuinness and Ferris.^[28]

In 2004, McDowell called killings by gangs the "sting of a dying wasp", intimating that gangland killings were coming to an end. However, there were a record number of gun killings in Ireland in 2006 (25 in total), including five murders in six days in December.^[30] McDowell has stated that "soft" judges are partly to blame for these killings for granting bail to gang suspects despite Garda objections. These statements have caused anger in the legal profession. One unnamed legal professional described McDowell's statements as "outrageous" and "bordering on impeachable".^[31] In an unprecedented protest, dozens of senior judges boycotted a 2006 Christmas reception given by McDowell.^[32] He has been openly criticised by^[33] retired judge Fergus Flood over McDowell's remarks about the failure of judges to implement the law on bail and mandatory sentences for drug dealing. Flood said the judiciary must have the right to consider each individual case as appropriate and that McDowell should consider the context of his remarks before making statements.

In May 2005, when addressing the Oireachtas Justice Committee, he made a number of comments insinuating that most asylum seekers were not legally entitled to stay in Ireland and regretting his inability to deport them forthwith because of due process.

On 13 December 2005, using ,^[35] he claimed that Frank Connolly, an investigative journalist and a brother of one of the 'Colombia Three', had travelled to Colombia under a false passport.^[36] McDowell subsequently leaked the alleged faked passport application to a friend, the journalist Sam Smyth of the Irish Independent. McDowell was widely accused of abusing his power as Minister for Justice for political purposes,^[37] and prejudicing any potential police investigation. Although Connolly denied McDowell's accusations, the controversy led to Irish American private donor Chuck Feeney withdrawing funding from the Centre for Public Inquiry, an investigative organisation which had published two reports embarrassing the government, of which Frank Connolly was the director,^[36] after McDowell met with him.

On 20 March 2006, he apologised for calling the Opposition spokesperson on Finance, , TD, "the Joseph Goebbels of Irish political life". He had made these remarks after Bruton had highlighted to the Dáil that despite McDowell's claims of increases in Garda personnel in 2005, only 6 extra gardaí had been added to the Dublin police force in that year. McDowell maintained that Bruton specifically chose to compare dates that did not accurately reflect a general increase in Garda numbers. He apologised for the remarks on the "Morning Ireland" radio programme on RTÉ the next day.^[38]

In March 2006, he falsely claimed that 'people' were responsible for vandalising Progressive Democrats headquarters. He later withdrew the comment, but then appeared to repeat it again.^[39]

In May 2006, the struck down the law on statutory rape as unconstitutional as it did not allow an individual accused to enter the defence of reasonable belief that the victim was of age. The Supreme Court's decision surprised the whole country, and in the aftermath, McDowell was widely criticised for failing to anticipate the decision.^[40]

On 27 September 2006, he criticised the Taoiseach for accepting money from businessmen in 1993 and 1994, calling it unethical and an "error of judgement" and said that the money must be repaid with interest. The statement was greeted with derision by the Opposition, with Fine Gael claiming it was motivated by the Progressive Democrats determination to keep Fianna Fáil in power. Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said the Progressive Democrats were now handcuffed to Fianna Fáil for the duration of this Dáil, and that there might as well be single-party Government.^[41]

On 6 March 2007, McDowell apologised to the Dáil for omissions from an Act that he had enacted in 2006 on the protection of children from sex abusers in the Second Stage debate on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007 in the Dáil, saying: "The primary purpose of this short Bill is to remedy an error in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006. The particular point with which we are dealing was brought to my attention last week by Deputy Rabbitte, for which I thank him. It was a drafting error for which I am politically accountable and regretful."^[43]