Bruton dismisses calls for Owen to resign office

THE Taoiseach has dismissed calls for the resignation of the Minister for Justice over the prisoners' release issue.

Mr Bruton strongly defended Mrs Owen's record and said calls for her resignation were coming from people who had "political motivations of a point scoring nature" and were "not really concerned about the issues at the heart of the matter at all".

There was "no foundation for any such calls", he said. "The Minister for Justice has been the best Minister for Justice in recent times in terms of the fight against crime."

Mr Bruton pointed to Mrs Owen's record. She had put through legislation allowing for the seizure of criminals' assets and had arranged for a bureau to be put in place that was "putting more pressure on organised crime than organised crime has ever been under in recent history."

She was a "most effective Minister for Justice in terms of getting anti crime legislation through the Dail; in terms of getting decisions to provide additional prison places so that we have the means to ensure that, where convictions take place, people are not released but serve their sentences".

She had increased the number of prison places from the 2,000 which had existed under previous ministers to 2,800, he said.

"I don't think there is any Minister for Justice in recent history that has a better record than Nora Owen in terms of her primary and principal responsibility, which is dealing with the fight against crime."

The Taoiseach described the issue concerning Judge Dominic Lynch and the Special Criminal Court as "a very serious administrative problem".

The inquiry Mrs Owen had ordered would lead to recommendations which would include procedural recommendations to ensure the problem did not recur.

Mrs Owen had made a very full statement to the Dail and had indicated that she would return to the Dail with the recommendations from the very thorough inquiry.

Mrs Owen had gone into the Dail and dealt with every question put to her in a very "open and courageous and full way". She would return to the Dail with any further information she obtained.

He rejected suggestions that his party had suffered because of the three recent controversies affecting Fine Gael Ministers.

"I believe that the way Ivan Yates, Michael Noonan and Nora Owen carried on their responsibilities shows them to be very good Ministers who worked in conditions of great stress with great dignity, calmness, purposefulness and good effect."

What we had seen was that Ministers were prepared to take on their responsibilities under conditions of extreme pressure and "carry them forward with dignity, strength and with purpose".

"I believe that in politics you learn more and you grow more and you become a better politician, the more difficult crises that you face".

"It is through crises like this that a minister learns to be a better minister and become a better politician," he said.

Ministers who were not tested in "the most extreme conditions" were not as good at their job as those who were, he said.