Gardaí have appointed a senior officer to review the force's handling of an incident in Co Carlow at the weekend in which two men died, while stressing they remained satisfied with the management of the scene.
Supt Kevin Donohoe confirmed to The Irish Times that Chief Supt Gerry Phillips, from Cork North Division, had been appointed to carry out a review of how gardaí handled the incident in which James Healy and Michael Kehoe died.
Their funerals take place today.
Supt Donohoe said the Garda would appoint a senior officer from outside the area to review what are termed "critical incidents", and the deaths of the two men fell within the definition of a critical incident.
Chief Supt Phillips will interview officers involved in the investigation which arose after Mr Kehoe shot Mr Healy on disputed lands at Coolyhune, Co Carlow, on Saturday morning and later that evening shot himself as gardaí tried to negotiate with him.
Supt Donohoe pointed out that while Mr Healy was shot at approximately 11am, gardaí didn't locate Mr Kehoe until approximately 4pm when he was seen in an outhouse. It was not the case that there was a seven-hour standoff.
He confirmed that a Garda negotiator was on his way to the scene when Mr Kehoe shot himself at approximately 6pm, but he pointed out that the negotiator had been in constant contact with gardaí at the scene throughout the standoff.
"The negotiator was in contact with gardaí at the scene and was fully aware of what was being said by the gardaí who made contact with Mr Kehoe, and he was satisfied with the manner [ in which] it was being progressed," said Supt Donohoe.
Supt Donohoe said that since Abbeylara, when John Carty had been shot dead by members of the Emergency Response Unit, the Garda had reviewed its approach to standoff and siege situations, and the new procedures had been applied in Carlow.
"Suicide intervention is regarded as a critical incident and we have reviewed the way we deal with critical incidents - the upskilling of the resources required at the scene such as negotiators, scene commanders - making sure they're in place," he said.
"We had a trained scene commander on the scene, Supt John Roche from Gorey, and once the strategy was decided upon in terms of cordon containment and negotiation, he set about implementing that," he said.
Meanwhile The Irish Times has learned that the late Mr Kehoe's sister, Catherine, had obtained an interlocutory injunction at Kilkenny Circuit Court on May 31st this year preventing him from entering or interfering with the disputed land at Coolyhune.
Judge Olive Buttimer granted the injunction which prohibited Mr Kehoe from "threatening, harassing, intimidating or otherwise interfering with any person on or in connection with the land".
Mr Healy had phoned gardaí at Graiguenamanagh on Saturday morning to tell them that he was going out to the disputed land, where he was later shot by Mr Kehoe while engaged in fencing work.
