JOURNALIST Vincent Browne is strongly denying a statement made by the Minister for Justice in the Dail yesterday about his telephone tapping case.
Ms Owen said Mr Browne agreed that the transcripts would be destroyed "after he had read them". He then tried to unpick the agreement after it had been finalised. Mr Browne, however, told The Irish Times that he had a letter from the Chief State Solicitor's Office to prove that he strenuously objected to the transcripts being destroyed.
Mrs Owen told the PD spokeswoman, Ms Liz O'Donnell, that it was open to Mr Browne at all times to indicate, through his lawyers, that he wanted to take the case to court. "It is unworthy and dishonorable to suggest that either the State's legal team or the officials of the Department tried to mislead him and that he entered into the agreement under false pretences," she said.
She also said that a document containing the State's proposed settlement terms had already been agreed with her predecessor before she took office in December 1994. It was agreed that the State should pay compensation to Mr Browne and that there would be a confidentiality clause binding on, both sides. She later authorised and increased compensation offer.
Referring to Prime Time on Tuesday night, Mrs Owen said she sent a letter to the producers of the programme explaining that the agreement was in all substance, reached before she became Minister for Justice. "For their own reasons, they decided not to make reference to the letter or to the answer to that question, despite allowing people in the course of the programme to imply otherwise. They did not correct that speculation," she stated.
