The Labour Party has accused the Minister for Justice of "lashing out" his critics instead of tackling what it termed the "crisis" in the criminal justice system.
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Labour's justice spokesman Mr Joe Costello was responding to interviews with the Minister at the weekend in which he stood over the Government's record on crime and said he did not accept that the system is in crisis.
Mr Costello said Mr McDowell was "more obsessed with criticism from Opposition parties and the media than putting in place the measures and resources necessary to deal with gang crime and the problems facing the criminal justice system following the collapse of the Liam Keane trial".
Mr Keane was the defendant in a murder trial that collapsed in Dublin last week after a number of prosecution witnesses said they could not recall the statements they made to gardai.
"Minister McDowell is now lashing out at everybody who criticises him with far more vigour than he is investing in drawing up proposals to deal with thecrisis in the criminal justice system," Mr Costello said.
"Whereas he condemns a knee-jerk reaction to the problem, the Minister and his Government have no cohesive response at all. The €2 million announced last week will have very limited impact around the country [as] will the small number of 51 gardaí who have come into the force since he became Minister."
Mr Costello said the Minister was "out of touch with the reality of the scourge of crime". He also needed to address the rate at which new gardaí are coming "on line".
The Labour spokesman said there were no proposals to address jury and witness protection and that the Minister had done "nothing" to resource community gardaí who are "at the coal face".
"It is time the Minister stopped lashing out at others in this arrogant 'I know best' manner. We need to know what he is going to do about the crisis in which the justice system now finds itself."
Mr McDowell said yesterday he did not believe we had arrived at "a state of social anarchy".
Speaking on RTÉ's This Weekprogramme, he said: "There are areas where gangland activity has produced an atmosphere of intimidation."I accept that. But I do not believe that the judicial system is in crisis. I do not believe that it has broken down. And it is a gross exaggeration on the part of the media to suggest that it has."