Two Gardai based in Co Donegal have secured leave from the High Court to seek an order prohibiting internal Garda disciplinary inquiries into alleged breaches of discipline by them.
Garda Patrick Mulligan and Garda John O'Dowd, formerly of Raphoe station, want to stop the inquiry proceeding on May 1st pending the outcome of the Dáil-established tribunal of inquiry into Garda activities in Co Donegal.
Mr Justice McKechnie said yesterday he proposed permitting the Garda authorities to be heard by the court on Thursday next (April 25th) on the issue.
Mr John Whelan SC, for the two applicants, said the application had been before the High Court last week. On that occasion, the court had indicated it wanted to know the attitude of the Garda authorities. Since then they had been written to and had replied that they were not agreeable to deferring the internal inquiries pending the outcome of the tribunal.
When the case was before Mr Justice McKechnie last week, Mr Whelan said that, following the death of Mr Richie Barron in Co Donegal in October 1996, both his clients arrived on the scene. Subsequently, both suffered stress and anxiety and had to go on certified sick leave.
The authorities had ordered two separate sworn inquiries into alleged breaches of discipline by both men in regard to their co-operation with a superior officer. The inquiries had been due to begin on March 25th but had been adjourned until May 1st.
Mr Justice McKechnie, in granting leave yesterday, said he was not indicating what the ultimate outcome of the judicial review proceedings would be.
In their grounds of challenge, the gardaí argued that the tribunal's terms of reference involved the same or similar matters to those of the disciplinary proceedings. If the internal inquiries were to go ahead on May 1st, they would derogate from the tribunal as they would entail the pre-judging of issues.