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Michael McDowell

Tánaiste
Periods in office: 13 September 2006–present
Predecessor(s)	Mary Harney
Successor(s)	Incumbent
Born	May 1951 Dublin, Ireland
Political party	Progressive Democrats
Constituency	Dublin South East

Michael McDowell (Irish: Mícheál Mac Dubhghaill;^[1] born May, 1951) is an Irish politician who is leader of the Progressive Democrats political party. He is a TD for Dublin South East and is Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform. He has previously been the Attorney General of Ireland (1999–2002) and was also the President of the Progressive Democrats. He is a grandson of Eoin MacNeill, also a politician^[2] and founder of the Irish Volunteers and co-founder of the Gaelic League.

Contents 1 Life before election to the Dáil 2 Career in the Dáil and Attorney General 3 Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform 3.1 Work as Minister 3.2 Controversies as Minister 4 Party Leadership 5 External links 6 Footnotes 7 Political career

Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was educated at the Jesuit school [[Gonzaga College]. Then at University College Dublin and King's Inns in Dublin where he qualified as a barrister in 1974. McDowell was a junior counsel on the legal team that defended the murderer Malcolm MacArthur in the notorious GUBU case.^[3] He was appointed a Senior Counsel in 1987 when he was 35 years old.He became involved in politics, initially supporting Fine Gael. When Desmond O'Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil in 1985 McDowell was one of the people who helped him establish the Progressive Democrats. He is the husband of UCD accountancy Professor Niamh Brennan and brother of UCD economics lecturer Moore McDowell.

McDowell was one of 14 Progressive Democrat TDs elected to Dáil Éireann in the 1987 general election, the first election after the party was founded. He lost his seat in the 1989 election but was made Chairman of the Party. McDowell regained his seat in the 1992 election but lost it again in the 1997 election. At various times, he served as a member of the Progressive Democrat front bench in roles as spokesman for Foreign Affairs, Northern Ireland and Finance. In July 1999 McDowell was appointed Attorney-General of Ireland,^[4] a position he held until 2002. In 2000 he suggested changing the name of the party to the Radical Party but to no avail.^[5]

Following the 2002 General Election, McDowell regained his Dáil seat. He was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform. He has been a strong opponent of Sinn Féin and the IRA, and often takes a harder line than his coalition partners, Fianna Fáil. He is admired^{[citation needed]} by many unionists in Northern Ireland for this stance.

• In 2005, he announced plans to introduce anti-social behaviour orders, although not in the same form as those in the United Kingdom.^[6]
• McDowell's Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003^[7] prohibited cut-price drinks promotions and restricted on alcohol advertising, as well as making it mandatory for under-21s to have proof of age when drinking in pubs.^[8] This law also banned under-18s from pubs after 9pm, a regulation was highly unpopular and was later relaxed to 10pm during the summer months.^[9] In 2005, McDowell proposed to grant *licenses for café-bars which would have a limited capacity and serve meals as well as alcohol. It was hoped that this would combat binge drinking by introducing a more European "café culture". This initiative was dropped due to objections from publicans and members of his coalition partners, Fianna Fáil.^[10]
• In 2004, he proposed a citizenship referendum to end the automatic right to Irish citizenship for all babies born on the island of Ireland. This was in response to what he termed "citizenship tourism", where large numbers of pregnant women were allegedly coming to Ireland to give birth andthus gain automatic citizenship for their children. The referendum was passed with an 80% majority.^[11] The referendum was criticised by the Opposition, some of whom accused McDowell of encouraging racism.^[12]
• He has reformed the private security industry, regulating it for the first time under the Private Security Services Act 2004 and establishing the Private Security Authority.^[13]
• He has launched far-reaching reforms of the Garda Síochána under the Garda Síochána Act 2005,^[14] after they were extensively criticised by the Morris Tribunal and Barr Tribunal.^[15]
• McDowell's Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005 on telecommunications data retention compels service providers to store all telephone, SMS and internet records for three years and provide them to gardaí on request. The Digital Rights Ireland campaign group has filed a suit against the government in the High Court claiming that this law is a breach of the constitutional right to privacy.^[16][17]
• McDowell's Defamation Bill of 2006 proposed a radical reform of Irish defamation law, replacing the torts of libel and slander with one single offence of "defamation" and allowing the press to plead "fair and reasonable publication" as a defence in defamation cases. As of 2006, the bill was being considered by the Oireachtas.^[18] Related to the defamation reforms, McDowell also proposed a new privacy law which was heavily criticised by the newspaper industry.^[19][20]

• McDowell rushed emergency legislation on the protection of children through the Dáil in 2006, without normal parliamentary analysis and debate, which was found to be flawed in March 2007, because[2]

McDowell, like the rest of Leinster House, was too terrified by the howling mob assembled - literally - outside the gates of the Dail at the time to do the right thing.

• On the unraveling of the emergency legislation of 2006[3]

McDowell’s attempts last week to blame the opposition for his Government’s flawed legislation of last year were uncharacteristically pathetic for a politician who prides himself on his strong personality and willingness to take decisive action.

As Justice Minister, he has attracted a good deal of controversy:

• He sped up deportation of failed asylum seekers, including one case in 2005 where a student, Olunkunle Eluhanla who while preparing for his Leaving Certificate examinations was deported back to Nigeria. After a public outcry, McDowell allowed his return.^[21][22]
• In February 2005, he accused the Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris of being members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army's Army Council.^[23] The allegations were denied

  Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris have issued a joint statement in which they categorically deny that they are members of the IRA or its Army Council.^[24]

  by by Adams, McGuinness and Ferris.^[25]
• In 2004 McDowell called killings by gangs the “sting of a dying wasp”, intimating that gangland killings were coming to an end. However, there were a record number of gun killings in Ireland in 2006 (25 up to 13 December).^[26], including five murders in six days in December.^[27] McDowell has stated that "soft" judges are partly to blame for these killings for granting bail to gang suspects despite garda objections. These statements have caused anger in the legal profession. One unnamed legal professional described McDowell's statements as "outrageous" and "bordering on impeachable".^[28] In an unprecedented protest, dozens of senior judges boycotted a 2006 Christmas reception given by McDowell.^[29] He has been openly criticised by [4] retired judge Fergus Flood over McDowells remarks about the failure of judges to implement the law on bail and mandatory sentences for drug dealing. Flood said the judiciary must have the right to consider each individual case as appropriate and that McDowell should consider the context of his remarks before making statements.
• On 13 December, 2005, using Dáil privilege,^[30] he claimed that Frank Connolly, a journalist with Republican sympathies^{[citation needed]} and a brother of one of the 'Colombia Three', had travelled to Colombia under a false passport. McDowell subsequently leaked the alleged faked passport application to, his friend, the journalist Sam Smyth of the Irish Independent. McDowell was widely accused of abusing his power as Minister for Justice for political purposes.^[31] Although Connolly denied McDowell's accusations, the controversy led to an American private donor withdrawing funding from the Centre for Public Inquiry, an investigative organisation of which Frank Connolly was the director.^[32]
• On 20 March, 2006, he apologised for remarks he made comparing the Opposition spokesperson on Justice, Richard Bruton TD, to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. He had made these remarks after Bruton had highlighted to the Dáil that despite McDowell's claims of increases in Garda personnel in 2005, only 6 extra gardai had been added to the Dublin police force in that year.^[33]
• In March 2006 he falsely claimed that Green Party 'people' were responsible for vandalising PD headquarters. He later withdrew the comment, but then appeared to repeat it again.^[34]
• In May 2006, the Irish Supreme Court struck down the law on statutory rape as unconstitutional as it did not allow an individual accused to enter the defence of reasonable belief that the victim was of age. McDowell was widely criticised for failing to anticipate the decision.^[35]
• On 27 September, 2006 he criticised the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for accepting money from businessmen in 1993 and 1994, calling it unethical and an error of judgement and said that the money must be repaid with interest. The statement was greeted with derision by the Opposition, with Fine Gael claiming it was motivated by the PDs determination to keep Fianna Fáil in power. Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the PDs were now handcuffed to Fianna Fáil for the duration of this Dáil, and that there might as well be single-party Government.^[36]
• On 6 March, 2007, McDowell defended his latest legislative fiasco on ommissions from an Act^[37] that hed had enacted in 2006^[38] on the protection of children from sex abusers in the Second Stage debate on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2007 in the Dail.

The primary purpose of this short Bill is to remedy an error in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006. The particular point with which we are dealing was brought to my attention last week by Deputy Rabbitte, for which I thank him. It was a drafting error for which I am politically accountable and regretful.^[39]

In June 2006, McDowell was involved in a leadership dispute with party leader Mary Harney, over an alleged promise by Harney to refrain from eating more than three chocolate cakes in front of him and his elderly mother. The dispute appeared to have been resolved with Harney remaining as leader.^[40] On 7 September 2006, Mary Harney unexpectedly resigned as party leader and McDowell became the favourite to succeed her in the consequent leadership election. She was last seen quaffing large quantities of tea cake at Bewley's Restaurant on Grafton Street, causing an immediate surge in the stock price for the publicly quoted company. Irish media reported on 10 September 2006 indicated that Michael McDowell would be the sole nominee for party leadership, Liz O'Donnell would become Deputy Leader and that Tom Parlon would become Party President.^[41] On 11 September 2006 McDowell was confirmed as party leader^[42] and on 13 September 2006, he was appointed Tánaiste. McDowell receives a salary of €222,256 in his new role.^[43]

• Oireachtas Database entry for McDowell
• Progressive Democrats' Website
• Michael McDowell's Website
• Michael McDowell's electoral history (ElectionsIreland.org)

Political offices
Preceded by David Byrne	Attorney General of Ireland 1999–2002	Succeeded by Rory Brady
Preceded by John O'Donoghue	Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform 2002 – present	Incumbent
Preceded by Mary Harney	Leader of the Progressive Democrats 11 September 2006 – present	Incumbent
Preceded by Mary Harney	Tánaiste 15 September 2006 – present	Incumbent

Deputy Prime Ministers of Ireland Tánaistí na hÉireann
Seán T. O'Kelly • Seán Lemass • William Norton • Seán MacEntee • Frank Aiken • Erskine H. Childers • Brendan Corish • George Colley • Michael O'Leary • Ray MacSharry • Dick Spring • Peter Barry • Brian Lenihan • John P. Wilson • Bertie Ahern • Mary Harney • Michael McDowell
Vice-Presidents of the Executive Council Kevin O'Higgins • Ernest Blythe • Seán T. O'Kelly

Leaders of the Progressive Democrats
Desmond O'Malley (1985–1993) • Mary Harney (1993–2006) • Michael McDowell (2006–)

This page incorporates information from the Oireachtas Members Database