Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has withdrawn a remark he made in the Dáil two weeks ago in which he suggested that people who ransacked the Progressive Democrats headquarters during the Dublin riots looked like Green Party supporters.
The Green Party had tabled a motion of censure against Mr McDowell in the wake of his comments during justice questions a fortnight ago, when he suggested that footage of those who vandalised the PDs' headquarters "looked like Deputy Gormley's type of people", in reference to his Dublin South East constituency colleague Green Party TD John Gormley.
Mr McDowell withdrew the remark as a row raged over the admissibility of the censure motion.This followed his apology earlier to deputy Fine Gael leader Richard Bruton whom he had compared to Nazi propagandist Dr Joseph Goebbels in a row over Garda numbers.
The issue was raised when Green leader Trevor Sargent persistently attempted to call on the Government to allow time for the Minister to "correct the record following his unwarranted and untruthful attack".
Mr Sargent said the Minister was allowing an allegation to hang in the air.
As the Ceann Comhairle ruled that the issue was not appropriate for the order of business and could be raised later during private members' time, Mr Sargent persisted. He said Mr McDowell "has a responsibility to this House to uphold standards, tell the truth and not impugn the reputation of any member in such a fashion".
Mr Gormley intervened and said it would only take the Minister 15 seconds to withdraw the remark. When Mr McDowell said he withdrew the remark, Mr Sargent thanked him.
Later during a Green Party private members' motion on political donations and planning, Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North Central) accused Mr McDowell of abusing his power and claimed he was a "political bully and intellectual snob".
He showed "no respect for due process and the DPP's office. He gloats and brags about taking out the Centre of Public Inquiry which was founded to root out corruption. He destroyed [ former journalist] Frank Connolly's name by leaking files."
