Morris Tribunal: A former garda told the tribunal he gave his informer a "bleeper" to keep in touch with him, but the informant didn't know how to use it and broke it after a month.
Mr John O'Dowd said he and his informer, William Doherty, had called a 1550 number the night his informer made a hoax extortion phone call during the investigation into the death of Raphoe cattle dealer, Mr Richie Barron.
He said he gave Mr Doherty the bleeper to keep in touch with him. The informer's father "smashed it to stop it from beeping".
The chairman earlier described the former garda's explanation that he allowed his informer to use his home telephone in case he needed to speak to Provisional IRA contacts as "half-baked".
Mr O'Dowd said he was told by his superintendent, Mr Kevin Lennon, to allow the informer to use his phone if he wanted to.
A hoax extortion phone call was made from Mr O'Dowd's phone on November 9th, 1996, to Mr Michael Peoples, who was later arrested during the investigation into the death of Mr Barron.
Another former garda has said it was unusual that an inspector sat in on an interview with a key witness during the investigation, but did not sign his statement.
"Insp [ John] McGinley sat in on the taking of the statement, and he never signed it," Mr Philip Collins said. Mr Noel McBride, who made the statement, later retracted it, blaming Mr Doherty for putting him up to it.
Mr Seán Quinn, for Sgt Martin Moylan, said there was "a closeness and a loyalty between Mr Collins and Mr O'Dowd, and they were attempting to shift the blame for the statement to Sgt Moylan and Insp McGinley".