The judge who presided over the Arms Trial said yesterday he had not been aware that a file containing a key statement was withheld from the 1970 trial.
Mr Seamus Henchy, a former Supreme Court judge, told The Irish Times yesterday he had not known of the existence of the documents at the time, and was not aware of it until recent days.
Mr Desmond O'Malley, the minister for justice at that time, personally directed that the file containing the suppressed statement of Col Michael Hefferon be withheld from the second Arms Trial, just days after the trial began.
The certificate of privilege, signed by Mr O'Malley, directed that privilege be claimed for the file and the contents of each document in it, but said this did "not apply to the production of the said file or of any particular documents from the said file to the trial judge for his private inspection".
Mr Henchy, former chairman of the IRTC, said yesterday he had not seen the documents. He said the only thing a judge would see was the book of evidence.
"I know nothing about these documents other than what I read in the newspapers. There was nothing unusual about that. A judge never saw any documents other than the book of evidence in any case, unless the content of the statement is raised in the witness box by the witness."
Asked if he should have been made aware of its existence, Mr Henchy, who retired in 1988, repeated that he did not know about the statement.
A facsimile of the certificate of privilege, signed under ministerial privilege on October 7th, 1970, by Mr O'Malley, directed that Col Hefferon's original Arms Trial statement, among other documents, not be disclosed in evidence.
The certificate is in file S/7/70 containing Col Hefferon's statement which made a number of references to the minister for defence at the time, Mr Jim Gibbons, knowing about the plan to import arms.
All these references were eventually omitted from the version of Col Hefferon's statement included in the book of evidence for the Arms Trial.
In a statement issued on Friday, Mr O'Malley said he would have to read all the relevant papers in the National Archive, and "probably a lot more besides", in order to respond fully to revelations concerning this file.
The Arms Trial, and the events that led to it, were complex matters, and to seek to simplify it to the fate of one document was to "grossly simplify a most complicated affair", he said.
A spokesman for Mr O'Malley said yesterday he had no further comment to make.