Minister for Justice Michael McDowell yesterday accused a Sinn Féin TD of "fraudulent hypocrisy" after Aengus Ó Snodaigh questioned the Minister's role in the closure of the Centre for Public Inquiry.
The row erupted at the Joint Committee for Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights when Mr Ó Snodaigh claimed that Mr McDowell had used information improperly to damage the reputation of Frank Connolly, former executive director of the centre.
The Centre for Public Inquiry closed in April when Atlantic Philanthropies withdrew its funding. This followed allegations by Mr McDowell that Mr Connolly had travelled to Colombia in 2001 under a false passport with an IRA leader. Mr Connolly has denied this.
Mr McDowell said Mr Ó Snodaigh's claim that he misused information was "totally wrong " and he had acted "entirely legally".
Frank Connolly's brother, Niall, was one of the Colombia Three who were convicted of entering Colombia on false passports in 2001. Mr McDowell challenged Mr Ó Snodaigh to tell the committee what the three men were doing in Colombia if they were not training Farc guerillas.
"Your movement, which is a lie to the Irish Republic, did that and don't cod yourself," he said.
He claimed that Mr Ó Snodaigh had turned a blind eye to it and this was "fraudulent hypocrisy".
Mr Ó Snodaigh said Mr McDowell had turned the principle of innocent until proven guilty "on its head".
"That's rubbish," Mr McDowell replied and later accused the TD of "blather". He said he was struck by the hypocrisy of Sinn Féin contributing to a Dáil debate on drugs when the money that was to be paid by Farc had come from its involvement in the drugs trade.
The angry exchanges came after Mr Ó Snodaigh expressed reservations that personal information may be misused when new EU measures are introduced.
Under the Hague Programme, from January, 2008, a formal mechanism will exist so that police can exchange existing information and intelligence with their counterparts in other EU states.
Mr Ó Snodaigh pointed to the British case highlighted this week where 1,500 innocent people were mistakenly given criminal records because of an error in the criminal records bureau.
He said the new measures did not give people a right to know if gardaí were passing on their information to police overseas.
Mr McDowell said it would be "nonsense" if gardaí had to alert criminals every time police abroad asked questions about them.
The measures were designed to stop serious crime, he said. "It's not some sort of exercise in abstract legal theory."
