THE Minister for Finance is expected to indicate to the Dail today that the Urlingford drugs operation was a Garda affair and did not involve the Customs Service until its very last stages.
Mr Quinn will be responding to questions from Opposition deputies about the operation, in which cannabis worth £130 million was imported into the State last November.
The Garda "seizure" of the drugs at Urlingford, Co Kilkenny, was hailed by the Government at the time as an example of effective co operation between the Garda, the Customs and, the Naval Service. But it has since emerged that gardai were involved in bringing the drugs into the State.
The chairman of the Revenue Commissioners - responsible for the Customs Service - has said Customs were not involved until the drugs had been imported in west Cork and transported to Urlingford by road.
Mr Cathal Mac Domhnaill told the Dail Committee on Public Accounts last week that the first Customs officer to arrive at the scene at Urlingford "found an RTE camera crew already there.
Garda Headquarters has appealed for an end to public discussion on the operation. It says lives are at risk and a major investigation has been damaged by the public debate.
The Fianna Fail front bench is to discuss the operation tomorrow but as of last night the party had no plans to become involved in the public debate on the operations. "We're keeping out of this one for now," a party source said.
But a series of questions on the affair has been tabled by Progressive Democrat deputies. According to Mr Michael McDowell the party's finance spokesman, the public is entitled to know whether the Garda has standing authority to land huge amounts of drugs in the State without prior ministerial sanction.
No one objected to gardai using undercover operations to detect and arrest drug barons, but one must take issue with a Taoiseach: "falsely claiming in Dail Eireann, political responsibility on behalf of a Minister for a success based on a version of events which does not stand up to scrutiny," he said.
Mr McDowell confirmed that he would ask the Minister, whether Customs officials were notified in advance of the details, of the drugs importing operation late late year. He will also seek to establish if the Custom officials indicated that they would "have nothing to do with the landing of drugs in Ireland by the State".
"The Progressive Democrats wish to emphasise that our concern with the Urlingford drug seizure is the political responsibility and accountability of this Government and the Minister for Justice. I have no quarrel with the gardai," Mr McDowell added.