If certain serving members of the Garda had not been determined not to account for themselves, there might be no Morris tribunal at all, according to its counsel, Mr Peter Charlton SC.
This determination seemed to be "inescapable" in relation to the necessity for the tribunal.
Mr Charlton made his remarks during an opening statement in Donegal Town yesterday outlining the issues arising in the module of the tribunal dealing with the death of cattle dealer Mr Ritchie Barron.
This led to the arrest of various relatives of publican Mr Frank McBrearty in connection with his alleged murder. Allegations by the McBrearty family against gardaí gave rise to the tribunal, though it is also considering other allegations against members of the force in Co Donegal.
Mr Charlton also said the investigation into Mr Barron's death could well turn out to be of persons "who could not even reasonably be described as suspects, in respect of a crime that may never have been committed".
He said the first issue was where were Garda John O'Dowd and Garda Padraig Mulligan prior to attending, late, the scene of the death of Mr Barron in Raphoe on October 14th, 1996.
He told the tribunal that Garda Mulligan, the garda on duty that night in Raphoe, left the sub-district with Garda O'Dowd, travelling first to Garda O'Dowd's house, before going on to a pub known as Brannigan's in Lifford.
"This piece of information was eventually extracted from both these serving members of An Garda Síochána as a result of interviews conducted by Chief Supt Brian Garvey of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, one of your investigators."
He added that the Carty investigation team had made "extraordinary efforts" to obtain this information.
The second issue concerned how Mr Barron died.
He said an independent pathology report drawn up by two British forensic pathologists for the tribunal stated that the most likely cause of his injuries was an impact with the bumper of a car or the wing mirror of a lorry, followed by impact by the front of his head with a road or pavement. They considered either a violent attack or a fall to be extremely unlikely.
The third issue concerned the competence of the investigation into his death. The scene was not preserved. "Whether people wish to attempt to justify practices which are completely contrary to the instructions issued in the Garda manual is entirely a matter for them."
The body was not examined by a forensic pathologist. "No murder case has ever been presented within the memory of your legal team which has not had the benefit of an investigation on the remains of the victim, which show a violent insult brought about, by apparent human intent, to the body of the deceased."
The fourth issue concerned how suspicion fell on members of the McBrearty family. He said Garda O'Dowd had already explained that a man called William Doherty had told him on the phone that "the talk about it up in the wake-house was that it was supposed to be a murder and that Mark McConnell and one of the McBreartys were supposed to be involved."
He said nothing was done to establish the veracity of this information. "This does not reach the standard of suspicion, never mind reasonable suspicion."
The fifth issue concerned the steps taken by the McBrearty family "to ward off the suspicions that were, increasingly obviously, becoming focused on them." These steps included the engagement of the services of a firm of private investigators run by Mr William Flynn. "Efforts to fend off unwarranted suspicions are not evidence of criminal activity."
The sixth issue concerns how the case against these two men was built.
"We want to know how it came to be that witnesses claimed to have seen things incriminating these parties, and to have been subjected to bribery attempts by them, if this did not happen. Each of these witnesses is making the case that they were set up. We want to know who set them up," he said.
The "poor or non-existent investigation" seemed to indicate a case of serious negligence, he said. What would be even more shocking would be if it turned out that persons who "knew about these matters" primed witnesses to give false information.
The seventh issue concerned the motivation for targeting the McBrearty and McConnell families.