CPI chairman backs director
The chairman of the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI) backed its executive director Frank Connolly today.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell alleged under privilege in the Dáil that Mr Connolly had travelled to Colombia on a false passport when he was a journalist in 2001.
He also revealed yesterday that he had personally given documents to the Irish Independent for a story on the issue.
The CPI’s sole backers, Atlantic Philanthropies, withdrew all funding last week.
But CPI chairman former Justice Feargus Flood said today that Mr McDowell could not override the Constitution as all citizens were entitled to the presumption of innocence.
He said: “All I know is that, in principle, all citizens of this country are innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the rules of the law.
“The minister cannot override the Constitution under any circumstances. Justice shall be administered in public in court.”
The former chairman of the Flood Planning Tribunal told RTE he knew Mr Connolly only for a year but knew nothing about his background.
Judge Flood also cast some doubt over whether the organisation could continue with its work. He said current funds will run out by the end of the year and the staff of five will have to be let go.
Earlier Seanad Leader Mary O’Rourke called on Mr McDowell to provide more information on how subversive activity could be thwarted by making such allegations about Mr Connolly, as he had claimed.
“I most certainly would like more knowledge from the minister,” she said. “I would guess (he would provide) that today. Until you get all the information, how can you probe definitively?”
