The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Royston Brady, yesterday denied he had issued an "abject" apology to the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, following a strongly worded attack on the Minister last week.
An abject apology would "imply humbling". He believes a Government spokesman had "spun" the word abject to journalists last Friday.
"I said 'unreservedly', which is mild enough. 'Abject' is an on your hands and knees job. Take a look at my statement, the word abject doesn't appear in it," Mr Brady told The Irish Times last night.
He added that he had criticised the Minister last week in an effort to raise the issue of crime in Dublin. While the personal nature of his criticism was "outside the line" the substantive issue "still stands".
In newspaper interviews last Friday, Mr Brady said Mr McDowell was an "arrogant bully". He said the Minister received a substantial salary but had failed to give value for money to the people of Dublin.
Mr Brady also said the Minister's failure to meet with him amounted to him giving the "two fingers" to the people of Dublin. He added that he was "hard pushed to find anything positive" in the Minister's recent crime-fighting initiatives.
Within hours of the interviews appearing, he issued an apology. Yesterday, Mr Brady denied his decision to apologise to the Minister had been influenced by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to whom he is close. He said he was at the All-Ireland hurling final with Mr Ahern last Sunday and the matter was not raised.
When asked on RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline programme yesterday if he still believed the Minister was arrogant, Mr Brady said: "Well, I suppose so." When pressed if he still believed the Minister had given the city of Dublin the two fingers, he said it was "up to Dublin" to decide.
"I don't understand why he would get so offended," he told The Irish Times last night. "I represent an inner city area and if somebody called me that it wouldn't hurt me. [The Minister\] has had no qualms about slapping other people around in the past."
He added that Mr McDowell had insulted the Taoiseach during the last general election "when he was trying to promote himself". He denied his apology represented a climbdown.
"I am just relaying what I am being told on the street. I said before I came to office that these were the issues I was going to raise, and that's what I'm going to do."
Whenever public representatives had tried to raise the issue of increased crime, they had been told the crime figures were going down, he said.
"People are just not reporting it. When a phone is robbed or a handbag is robbed, are people reporting it? I don't think they are."
