Flip flop McDowell fumbles cafe-bar ball on Prime Time

Justice Minister Michael McDowell showed on RTE's Prime Time last night just how out of touch he is with reality - and probably how much political pressure he is under - when he refused to admit that he climbed down from his plan to introduce plans for cafe style bars.

He insisted his plans for liberalising alcohol regulations for restaurants instead of introducing cafe-bars had nothing to do with pressure from 40 Fianna Fail - the publicans party – backbenchers. He said the new plans – climb down – were more radical than his original proposals which were aimed at stopping the culture of binge drinking among Ireland's teens and 20-year-olds. Really Minister?

How many teenagers does he think are going to be jumping for joy at the thought of being able to buy a wider range of alcohol products from restaurants. The point he fails to grasp is that teenagers binge drink because they want to get drunk and his original plan for “continental style” cafe-bars was flawed because this would have only really appealed to older adults who wouldn't necessarily want to binge drink anyway.

He said his new plans could mean that a young couple could go to a pizza parlour and be able to have a beer, vodka, brandy or whatever they wanted to drink while there. However, he said that restaurants such as McDonalds would not be allowed to serve alcohol even though they do so on the continent. Wasn't this all supposed to be continental style? Can you smell a McDonalds law suit coming on about being discriminated against?

It's interesting to watch McDowell as he does what the Americans call flip-flopping. It's clear that FF are going to dump the PDs and the Minister is clinging on for political survival.

Memories are long in FF and many won't have forgiven him for climbing up a lamppost at the last general election and announcing that FF couldn't be trusted to be on their own in Government and the country needed him and the PDs to be the watchdog in coalition.

Under pressure from FF and last night from Labour's Brendan Howlin McDowell, somewhat uncharacteristically it must be said, has made a number of gaffs.

While trying to argue that many claims from asylum-seekers are bogus on last nights programme, the Minister haphazardly produced a document from the Department of Justice that showed that one asylum-seeker wanted asylum in Ireland because he was a king in his village in Africa and he didn't want his son to be king after him.

At a stroke, he ridiculed all the claims from people who fear genocide, rape, incarceration and other human rights abuses in their country of origin.

Between garda corruption and showing a lack of political guts to introduce a garda watchdog, flip-flopping over cafe-style bars, Asbo's and his record on asylum, the Minister faces a rocky road to get himself re-elected to the Dail.