Two former Cork gardaí who allege they witnessed colleagues covertly recording conversations in Mallow Garda station in 1992 will not be called to give evidence at the Morris tribunal, chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris has decided.
Former det sgt John White applied last month for the men to be called because their evidence could corroborate his allegations that conversations between prisoners and solicitors were secretly taped in Letterkenny Garda station in the investigation into the death of Richie Barron.
Mr White has said he met Sgt Joseph Costello from Garda HQ at the time and spoke to him about the covert recordings, and a senior officer played a sample from one of the tapes to him.
The former Cork gardaí have alleged that they witnessed a named garda in a red van outside Mallow Garda station listening to tape recordings of interviews with a prisoner in custody during a murder investigation. An internal Garda inquiry found no evidence to support the claim.
"Even if I accept, as I do for the purposes of this ruling, that all they say is true, this would not in my view entitle me to infer as a matter of probability that what Mr White says occurred in Letterkenny," the chairman said.
"It would be wrong of me to infer from such evidence that because some other gardaí in Cork carried out a broadly similar eavesdropping operation . . . that Det Sgt Costello did so in Donegal in 1996. Mr White will not be in any way prejudiced in my not calling this evidence and I do not accept that it will in any way assist me in determining the issue as to whether the alleged bugging was carried out by Mr Costello in Letterkenny Garda station in December 1996," the chairman ruled.
A senior Garda told the tribunal there was no intent to cover up after bugging allegations were made in Co Donegal seven years ago.
Assistant Commissioner Nacie Rice, who was a chief superintendent at the time, met solicitor Paudge Dorrian after an article outlining the allegations appeared in the Donegal Democrat in May 2000. Mr Rice said an extensive investigation found no evidence to back up the claims.
Mr Rice said he needed "a formal basis" on which to launch an investigation, and he did not have one after meeting Mr Dorrian. The solicitor told him the source of the allegations were gardaí who wanted assurances that there would be no negative repercussions before they came forward.
"What I had was a newspaper article and a solicitor acting on behalf of his clients who declined to co-operate with the investigation," he said. "It's second-hand, it's of no real value."