The above document is a facsimile of the certificate of privilege, signed under ministerial seal on October 7th, 1970, by the minister for justice, Mr Desmond O'Malley, directing that the file containing Col Hefferon's original Arms Trial statement, among other documents, not be disclosed in evidence.
The certificate is in file S/7/70, which is among files released by the Department of Justice this year through the National Archives under the 30-year rule. The Irish Times inspected the file at the National Archives office in Dublin yesterday.
File S/7/70 contains the original statement by Col Hefferon which was the subject of last Tuesday night's Prime Time programme. That statement contains a number of references to the minister for defence at the time, Mr Jim Gibbons, knowing about the plan to import arms.
Each of these references is marked on the statement in handwriting believed to be that of the secretary of the Department of Justice.
These references were all eventually omitted from the version of Col Hefferon's statement included in the book of evidence for the Arms Trial.
Mr O'Malley said on Wednesday that he "did not engage in altering anybody's evidence, nor did I approve of or condone anyone else doing so". He said he had no knowledge of the editing of Col Hefferon's statement.
The director of the National Archives, Dr David Craig, said yesterday he was "absolutely satisfied" that all documents on the file were genuine as he was in relation to all files in the care of the National Archives. Asked if he was satisfied that the Col Hefferon statement was correctly filed in S/7/70 he said: "I'm certain of that in as much as one can be certain of anything. I have no reason to believe otherwise."
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach told the Dail yesterday that he would examine whether the archive of the inquiry of the Public Accounts Committee 30 years ago into the Arms Trial could be released. He agreed there was a need for a more detailed inquiry and said that had already started.