The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, was forced into two embarrassing apologies yesterday in order to defuse a political row that threatened to undermine his authority and embroil the Government in a damaging controversy.
First he apologised on radio to Fine Gael's finance spokesman Richard Bruton, for comparing him to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, on account of how Mr Bruton used statistics about the number of gardaí on the beat in Dublin.
In his apology to Mr Bruton, the Minister conceded that his comments were "over the top, unacceptable and intemperate". In the Dáil yesterday evening, Mr McDowell buttressed his apology by shaking hands with Mr Bruton.
Also in the Dáil the minister publicly withdrew remarks he made in the chamber two weeks ago during a row with constituency rival John Gormley suggesting that the people who attacked the Progressive Democrats' party headquarters in the recent Dublin riots looked like Green Party supporters. Mr McDowell made his apology after Green Party leader Trevor Sargent accused him of shattering the reputation of Mr Gormley and the Green Party.
Last night, Green Party TD John Gormley said that Mr McDowell had effectively "repeated the smear" on RTÉ's Prime Time, despite having earlier withdrawn his remarks.
"Given that the withdrawal was given with a smirk on his face, and that hours later he attempted to make the same claim, we can only conclude that it was totally insincere," said Mr Gormley.
A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach said the fact the minister had issued such a fulsome apology to Mr Bruton was helpful from Mr Ahern's point of view. She stressed the Taoiseach had not asked Mr McDowell to apologise or discussed the matter with him. Last night the Labour Party accused Mr McDowell of running away from debate, claiming that its leader, Pat Rabbitte, had been dropped from a Prime Time programme because Mr McDowell insisted he would only appear on his own.
"This is the same minister who yesterday challenged Deputy Richard Bruton to a debate on the crime situation," a Labour statement said. "Like so many of his recent comments, his statement made on Monday about wanting to debate the issue with the Opposition has turned out to be yet more hypocritical bombast."
A spokeswoman for Prime Time said: "Prime Time makes its own decisions on who appears on the programme and no one outside the programme dictates to it or exercises any veto. It is not uncommon for interviewees from time to time to agree to be interviewed on their own but not to debate with someone else."
Mr McDowell's handling of the justice portfolio was raised at the weekly Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting last night. There was some criticism of the minister and it was agreed that he should be asked to address a meeting of the party.
Meanwhile, Mr McDowell has published more than 200 amendments, covering 250 pages, to the long-awaited final version of his Criminal Justice Bill. A motion to refer the amended Bill to the committee will be discussed in the Dáil next week.