The Labour spokesman on justice Brendan Howlin has told the Morris tribunal that he has "no regrets" about bringing anonymous information to the then minister for justice alleging that a Garda inquiry into corruption in Co Donegal was "compromised".
Mr Howlin received the information in a telephone call from Martin Giblin SC, the barrister acting for the McBrearty family, on June 25th, 2000.
"In essence I placed my trust in a very senior criminal lawyer whose character I had checked," Mr Howlin said.
"The issue was, my source of information was somebody of substance, whom I trusted and whom I had checked to be trustworthy. And secondly, if the information that was imparted to me resulted in this tribunal, I think the first five reports of it were well justified, justified the establishment of it, so the net result, is certainly one I have no regrets about."
Mr Howlin said he trusted Mr Giblin's judgment, and did not ask the barrister the identify of the source of his information, "a garda based in Donegal".
The senior counsel told Mr Howlin that his source, a Donegal garda, had told him that Det Sgt John White was being "looked after", had "a stash" of stolen property, had planted evidence and had done "dirty work" for assistant commissioner Kevin Carty.
In a note of the conversation, Mr Howlin wrote that "Giblin's real concern is that Carty investigation is compromised". Following the conversation, Mr Howlin spoke with Fine Gael's spokesman on justice Jim Higgins, who had received similar information in a fax from Frank McBrearty snr.
Both men brought the information to the attention of the minister for justice, John O'Donoghue.
Garda and tribunal investigations have found no evidence to support any of the anonymous allegations made to the two TDs.
Mr Howlin said that by November 2001, when he introduced a Dáil motion calling for a public inquiry into events in Donegal, he "was absolutely convinced there was an unanswerable case for a tribunal of inquiry at that time". The motion was defeated by one vote.
However, the minister agreed to have a senior barrister review the Carty inquiry, and the report from Shane Murphy SC led to the establishment of the Morris tribunal in March 2002.
Mr Howlin told Michael Durack SC, for the Garda Commissioner, that it was not true that he refused to co-operate with the tribunal and said it was his "proper and correct duty" to protect his source.