By Paddy Clancy

Junior Minister Tony Killeen is at the center of a scandal over attempts to obtain early releases from prison for a convicted murderer and an elderly child sex-abuser.

The row erupted as Justice Minister Michael McDowell promised a series of measures giving police and the courts tougher powers to deal with serious crime.

Killeen, minister for labor affairs, was already under fire for lodging unsuccessful pleas for the release of a 73-year-old constituent serving six years for sexually abusing young children when the bid to free the murderer was revealed.

Details of representations made in that case were unearthed in details given to the Irish Independent under the freedom of Information Act.

The unnamed killer has served 11 years and is being held at the training center at Mountjoy Prison.

Killeen agreed the representations were made in communications from his constituency office in Clare to the justice minister, but he distanced himself from them and blamed his staff. He claimed he knew nothing about the letters sent in his name.

He said in his 14 years as a TD (Member of Parliament) over 200,000 letters had been issued from his office on behalf of constituents.

There was a system in which representations were made on behalf of prisoners which appeared to be working satisfactorily. He said that over five years his staff made representations on behalf of 10 prisoners.

“Prior to this I had been under the impression that representations had been made only a humanitarian basis for day release or temporary release, or sometimes for a transfer for the safety of a prisoner, or for rehabilitation or family access,” he said.

But he now realized that in the case of the murderer his constituency secretary, a local councilor, sought what he thought the jail governor had recommended -– early release.

“I didn’t sign the letter, I didn’t see the letter. I was not aware of it. I would not have approved it,” he said.

Killeen said he was now attempting to establish who was the murderer’s victim -– he had just started inquiries so he didn’t know the name -– in order to contact the family and apologize to them.

He had already contacted the sex offender’s victims and explained to them the circumstances in which his early release was sought.

Killeen said that in most of the other eight cases in which representations on behalf of prisoners were made by his office the applications were for day-release, special Christmas release or transfers to other jails to ease family access.

Killeen’s insistence that he knew nothing of the letters relating to prisoners which were signed by his staff sparked outrage.

Councilor Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Fine Gael Dail (Parliament) candidate in Clare, said, “It stretches credulity to its full limits to take on board the story that's being spun.”