Labour has called on the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to explain why the Garda record of an incident central to the Morris tribunal was altered in the weeks before the tribunal was established.
The Minister's spokeswoman said Mr McDowell had no comment to make on the case which involves alterations to the Garda file on the investigation into the death of the cattle dealer, Mr Richie Barron. She said it was for the tribunal to establish the significance of the development.
Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, said the Minister should explain why this information was withheld from the Dáil and from the coroner who investigated Mr Barron's death. The coroner was not told that the Garda record had redesignated the offence seven months before the inquest. The original record on the Garda's PULSE system indicated that the death of Mr Barron was a case of "suspected murder" and that Mr Frank McBrearty jnr was a suspect. In February 2002, six weeks before the Dáil established the tribunal, the PULSE record was changed to say that the case was one of "dangerous driving causing death". Mr McBrearty's name was removed at that time.
