The guns at the centre of the arms crisis may have ended up in the Philippines, according to secret Government documents from 1972 which have just been released to the National Archives.
The weapons, which were bought in 1970 but never delivered to Ireland, were later described by the man who sold them as "inferior" in quality.
These details have emerged in reports to Government on meetings in Hamburg between Irish civil servants and the German arms dealer, Herr Otto Schlueter, who sold the guns to Captain James Kelly, the Army officer acquitted in the Arms Trial.
The guns were not delivered and the civil servants (one of whom is believed to have been the late Anthony Fagan, formerly private secretary to Mr Charles Haughey as Minister for Finance) were involved in long-drawn-out talks with the dealer for a refund of the State money he received.
However, after nearly two years of negotiations, Herr Schlueter claimed he was still having serious difficulty disposing of the arms.
An account of two meetings in Schlueter's Hamburg office at Hallowe'en 1972 reports: "He said the goods were not in Europe. The long delay had arisen because of the difficulty his customer in the Philippines had in obtaining an import permit.
He said he expected these difficulties to be resolved by the end of November or early December. When he received payment he would then make a settlement with us."
The amount being sought by the State was 123,417 Deutschmarks, or approximately £15,427, a substantial figure at the time. However, at a previous meeting Herr Schlueter had objected that he could not raise more than DM50,000 to DM60,000 from the sale of the goods.
When asked to make an immediate offer in advance of any sale and based on his retention of the goods, he suggested DM20,000 "payable in instalments over eight months".
He said the reason for such a low figure was that "he had to take into account his risks and a possible loss if a deal fell through".
But by October 31st, 1972, the arms still had not been sold and no moneys had been repaid. The Public Accounts Committee of the Dáil had recommended that the Minister for Finance should make a full report when the steps being taken to recover the money had been concluded.
Schlueter commented that it was "strange that a Government should be pursuing a sum which was small for them but big for a businessman". He was told it was "a matter of principle".
Schlueter said that "the goods were of inferior quality and not readily saleable". He added he was "lucky to find a person in the Philippines who was prepared to take the goods". However, the documents refer to a test carried out on a sample of one pistol and 25 rounds of ammunition from the consignment which found them to be of good quality.
This was carried out by a "weapons expert", apparently from the Defence Forces, who travelled to Hamburg.
A separate document dated May 20th, 1970, quotes an extremely negative assessment of some of the weapons by the German security authorities, as follows:
"The pistols were 'Firebird' weapons made by the Hungarian FEG works and probably embossed at the factory as 'Made in West Germany' whereas the official term is 'Western Germany'.
In any case, the weapons were vastly inferior to Colts or Brownings and Herr Schlueter, as an arms dealer, would have known that no competent ordnance officer or a national defence forcer (sic) would have bought them. In the arms trade, they rank as dumping goods and only illegal guerrilla groups would be foolish enough to buy them. The German security services immediately got suspicions when they learnt they formed part of a deal."
On November 3rd, 1972, Schlueter wrote to the Department of Finance to say (in translation): "That we have received no money from you for the purchase of arms and munitions and that you were also not our customer. There is no business connection between us, of any sort whatsoever . . . We have dealt with a private Irish company and received the moneys from them. This, all in good faith, after even an Irish minister stood behind this business."