A Lawyer representing British soldiers at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry voiced concern about the limited extent of direct evidence from the IRA so far.
As the inquiry prepares to move into a new phase next week, including hearing the first police witnesses, Mr Gerald Elias QC suggested that if the evidence available from the IRA remained as limited as at present, in spite of the clearly expressed wishes of the victims' families, the tribunal would have to consider drawing certain inferences in its final report.
Focusing on the Provisional IRA, counsel said that apart from Mr Martin McGuinness and one other admitted member, it seemed little further was available from them.
Whether that organisation took the view that they did not need to give evidence because Mr McGuinness was going to testify, it was impossible to say.
"If that is the perception," Mr Elias added, "we would expect the tribunal would find it no more acceptable than if the adjutant of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment proposed to give evidence as to what the battalion had done on Bloody Sunday, in place of evidence from individual soldiers . . ."
Counsel asked how many people were now on the tribunal's list of known or suspected IRA members in 1972, how many had been traced and contacted, how many had agreed to be interviewed and how many had declined.
However, Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the tribunal, said it could be misleading to give an indication of how many witnesses were persons in respect of whom intelligence files were being checked.
Some who might fall prima facie in this category might turn out to be persons in respect of whom no relevant intelligence material existed.
He said that initial statements had been received from five Official IRA members who have been granted anonymity, and they are to be interviewed soon by tribunal solicitors. The signed statement of another admitted Official IRA member, Mr Reg Tester, has already been circulated.
But apart from Mr McGuinness, Mr Thomas McGlinchey (who has already given evidence) and an unnamed witness known only as "Mr X" who is seeking anonymity, no other declared Provisional IRA members had been interviewed.
When the inquiry begins taking police evidence next Monday, it will also hear the first witness to testify from behind screens.
The chairman, Lord Saville, said that only qualified barristers and solicitors should be in the hall before the witness is brought into his screened position.
The public and the families will then be admitted. When the witness is finished, the public and family galleries will be cleared while the witness leaves.
It is understood that, in the forthcoming series of police witnesses, only one has requested screening, but there may be others at a later stage.
In evidence yesterday, Mr Thomas McDaid described watching the shooting of his cousin, Mr Barney McGuigan, as he looked out of a window in the Bogside after the shooting began.
Mr John Hutton said that he was also watching from a window when he saw a "small soldier" move out about three feet from the corner of Glenfada Park, go down on one knee and fire his rifle.
Mr McGuigan had just then moved out from cover, holding a white handkerchief in his hand, and when the shot rang out he seemed to be hit in the right side of his head and the force of the bullet spun him around before he fell.
The inquiry will not sit today, the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
It will resume on Monday.