THE Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, has faced a series of controversies and political difficulties since she took over the post of Minister for Justice late in 1994.
Just seven months into the job she got into difficulties with the Labour Party after going on a "solo run" on RTE's Farrell programme by stating her desire for a constitutional referendum to extend the grounds for refusing bail.
Labour strongly opposed the idea of changing bail regulations at that stage, and sources in the party signalled the leadership's displeasure at her action.
She suffered humiliation at the hands of Cabinet later when, in her absence, it was decided to axe or postpone her plans for extra prison spaces. However, on a groundswell of public indignation over rising crime, she later won back lost ground and on November 1st officially opened, the first phase of Castlerea Prison, which is to house 25 prisoners initially. The Wheatfield Prison complex is due to be completed in 1998.
Other political embarrassment awaited the Minister over the Brink's Allied robbery when it emerged that gardai had prior warning that a major theft was being planned.
All the time, her portfolio was becoming more difficult as Opposition politicians in the Dail harangued her about the growth of serious crime. The Minister came under particular scrutiny when it emerged that a huge drugs haul - the biggest in the history of the State - discovered at Urlingford on the Kilkenny Tipperary border was in fact a Garda "sting" operation that went wrong.
Earlier this year, there was uproar in the Dail after the extradition case against Mr Anthony Duncan collapsed in the District Court. The case fell after gardai mislaid the original extradition warrant and a photocopy produced in court did not bear the necessary police endorsement. The Irish authorities were blamed, for the first time, for mishandling an extradition case, and the matter caused the Minister and the authorities acute embarrassment.
(Mr Duncan was among the prisoners who was released and rearrested in Portlaoise early yesterday morning).
Mrs Owen faced renewed criticism last week after an Algerian man, Mr Madani Haouanoh, was taken to Heathrow Airport "from Dublin by two immigration officers on the day the High Court granted his lawyers an order preventing his deportation."
Opposition politicians in Leinster House last night said they believed the latest debacle facing Mrs Owen is by far the most grievous of all the problems she has faced in almost two ears in office.