The Minister's first six months in office have seen broken promises, escalating thuggery and a woeful allocation of resources, writes JoeCostello.
Michael McDowell might well be mistaken these days for the Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland fame. He sits grinning on the Government benches with the type of smug satisfaction that is only equalled in the Lewis Carroll novel.
There is also something of the cuckoo about the Minister in recent times. Like the scatterbrained bird, he is more likely to be found interfering with someone else's nest rather than concentrating on looking after his own. His recent tirade on EU tax harmonisation is a case in point.
Michael McDowell has little reason for grinning, however. As he approaches the end of his first six months as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, he can look back on that period with a sense of embarrassment and despair. To borrow his own phrase, his reign in the Department to date has been "redundant rather than radical".
There is a litany of failures in recent times that the Minister would do well to reflect on over the Christmas recess. He has presided over an ongoing escalation in violent crime and public disorder. There has been a 33 per cent increase in murders in one year, sexual offences are up 81 per cent, violent assaults are up 83 per cent and drug offences have grown by 33 per cent in12 months. Lip service is all that we have had from Mr McDowell as we had from his predecessor. The policy of zero tolerance has been replaced by a policy of zero competence.
The Minister has failed to do anything to address spiralling alcohol abuse, particularly among young people, the only response to which seems to be to increase the price of a bottle of "alcopops", which will not stop anyone consuming these products.
Mr McDowell has had six months to provide adequate premises for the tribunal of inquiry into the shooting of John Carty in Abbeylara, but the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Robert Barr, is still waiting for a premises to begin his investigation into this case. He has been ready to start this work since September.
The Morris tribunal which is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Richie Barron and related matters in Co Donegal has exposed the most shocking revelations and allegations of corruption within the Garda Síochána since the foundation of the force. Yet the tribunal has to continue its work without the participation of some of the key individuals involved, most notably the McBrearty family.
Moreover, the Minister has refused to extend the terms of reference to some of the most important players in the case, namely his own Department, the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. When Labour tabled a motion in the Dáil to extend the terms of reference it was voted down by Mr McDowell and his colleagues.
Similarly, the Minister's response into the investigation of the so-called May Day riots in Dublin has been epitomised by bewildered inaction and muted criticism. He has claimed on the one hand that the gardaí have an onus to co-operate with such investigations but has persisted in rejecting Labour's calls for the establishment of an independent Garda ombudsman to deal with public complaints arising from such events. It is no longer acceptable for the police to police the police.
The spate of Government spending cutbacks have left their mark on the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform without so much as a whimper from Michael McDowell. The closure of Ireland's only open prison for young offenders at Shanganagh in Co Dublin is a scandal. He has stood idly by as the centre was deliberately and systematically downgraded, leading to its closure by the end of this month.
There have been cutbacks in resources for victim support, the Garda Complaints Board, childcare and the programmes in place to combat inequality and racism in Irish society. To pay for escalating bills in such areas as compensation for the victims of Garda brutality, the Minister has taken from the budgets for legal aid, the asylum-seekers task force, gender mainstreaming and the probation and welfare officers.
These cuts are coming at a time when the Minister decides to allocate 50 gardaí to accompany 20 deported asylum-seekers to Nigeria aboard a costly chartered flight.
These cuts come at a time when the Minister allocates 500 gardaí to rounding up a handful of asylum seekers in a day-long purge of Irish communities while gangs roam the inner cities and commit murder and mayhem on a weekly basis. This ludicrous approach to the allocation of Garda resources is neither tenable nor realistic.
Both Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats made much of their promise to provide an additional 2,000 gardaí during the course of the general election. As with so many of their electoral commitments, this was another mistruth and a political deception.
The Book of Estimates and Budget 2003 do not provide one cent for additional gardaí at a time when they were never more necessary.
Mr McDowell has told existing gardaí that there is no overtime available for them to implement the anti-drink-driving campaign over the Christmas period. They have also been told that the Government does not have the necessary resources to supply the force with 800 new breathalyser kits to assist in stamping out drink-driving.
Stripping them of the necessary resources makes it impossible for the gardaí to carry out their work.
The legacy of Michael McDowell's first six months in office is a rapid deterioration in confidence in the Garda, escalating thuggery and wanton violence, fear among young people walking the streets, fear among older people living in their homes, soaring levels of sexual crime and an inexplicable pattern of the allocation of Garda resources.
The Cheshire Cat has little to grin about this Christmas.
Joe Costello TD is the Labour Party spokesman on Justice