Northwest Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins has said he does not know the identity of the individual who approached former Fine Gael leader John Bruton and asked him to get the former Fine Gael justice spokesman to "ease off" on the McBrearty case.
Frank McBrearty snr asked Mr Higgins if he could name the person involved in the approach to Mr Bruton. "No I can't, and Mr Bruton didn't name him," Mr Higgins said.
"Would Mr Bruton be able to name him, if he was called to the tribunal?" Mr McBrearty asked.
"He may," said Mr Higgins. "He may well." Mr Higgins said that until a few days ago, his only recollection of Mr Bruton ever asking him to "ease off" was "in relation to two senior judicial figures, both of whom who subsequently resigned."
But while examining documents for the tribunal, he came across "an A4 sheet of paper, rather decrepit and frayed at the edges" with "Frank Connolly re John Bruton" written on it.
Mr Higgins told Mr McBrearty that when he saw Mr Connolly's name, he thought "on reflection that possibly that John Bruton had asked me to ease off."
"I immediately rang Frank Connolly, who verified to me that he was in telephone contact with me and asked me if in fact John Bruton had asked me to ease off in relation to the McBrearty case, and that this had been done at the behest of a member of the Garda Síochána who had received a complaint from a member who was a member of the Garda Complaints Board," Mr Higgins said.
Mr Higgins then contacted his lawyers to correct the misleading impression they had given the tribunal on the issue during the cross-examination of retired garda PJ Togher.
Mr McBrearty snr said his recollection was that Mr Bruton had been approached by a member of the Garda Complaints Board in Dundalk.
"Correct," said Mr Higgins.
The Senator said he had acted responsibly when anonymous allegations against two senior gardaí were brought to his attention in June 2000.
Mr Higgins was responding to a statement made by Garda Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty in 2001, when he said the allegations were made "with malicious intent with the sole purpose of assassinating my character and good name."
" I absolutely resent and reject the tone of the letter in saying it was done with malicious intent with the sole objective of undermining his character, his credibility or his reputation. That is not true," Mr Higgins said.
"The sole motivation of Deputy Howlin and I was to protect their reputations by going one-to-one to the Minister . . . stressing . . . that we had absolutely no reason to believe that there was any substance or credibility to the allegations." Garda and tribunal investigations have found no evidence to support any of the anonymous allegations.