Transparent Leaking

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis Monday May 22, 2006 17:22 by iosaf

Mc Dowell wanted us to ponder this :-
"Probably the most important one is that the United Nations high commissioner's representative in Ireland and his predecessor have both pointed to the fact that the Irish system is one of the best in Europe and that it's a good and fair one and that it's transparent, that it's subject to judicial review."

Most of us of course disagree. But one word of Mc Dowell's statement made last week & republished again in today's Irish Times screams out for more attention :-
"Transparent".

He broke the law again - He alone may write the law, change the law, ignore the law, stretch the law....& get away with it everytime.

It begs questions - what is "transparent" about the system?

*in 2002 Mc dowell abolished the "refugee advisory board".
so the refugees or their new found friends and neighbours don't get much transparancy there.
This is where the "Irish refugee Council" came in. They don't seem to agree that the system is "transparent". So we move up a level :-

Amnesty International sit at the top level of Non Govermental Organisations worldwide. If we examine their statement on the Saint Patrick's protest of the 16th of May http://www.amnesty.ie/content/view/full/5865/ we May note that "We are unfamiliar with the precise details of these individual cases as yet, hence, while Amnesty certainly has some concerns about the overall asylum process in Ireland, it cannot comment specifically about these cases".
hmmmmm. murky transparency there & no doubt about it.

*here is the exact figures for asylum application and process in Ireland 2000-2005
http://www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie/stats.html
hmmmm "transparancy after the fact".

In the last week while Saint Patrick's cathedral was scene to protest, drama, racist heckling, church versus state relations, UNHCR visits, mediation, thirst fast, hunger strike, suicide attempts, and belatedly media attention - details of 4 confidential applications for aslyum in Ireland which were not available to either the Irish Refugee Council or Amnsety International" were leaked to the Irish commercial newspapers.

That constituted a criminal act.........................I'll put it more simply :-
Someone broke the Law.

that crime was comitted by :-
* either a member of the Garda Siochana.
* or a member of the Department of Justice.
In both cases the minister with responsibilty for inquiry is Michael Mc Dowell.
We need not hold out much hope, he broke the same laws himself last December.

here is the pdf file from the department of Justice on political asylum.
Download it & see for yourself how tranparent the system is :-
http://www.justice.ie/80256E01003A21A5/vWeb/pcJUSQ6AJMUD-en