The evidence of a Donegal lawyer has been delayed to allow documents to be exchanged between the tribunal legal team and representatives of the Garda Commissioner.
Mr Paudge Dorrian, a Buncrana solicitor, gave evidence yesterday about a series of meetings he had with Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick on March 22nd, 1999.
Legal representation for Mr Dorrian was granted to Mr John Whelan SC. The evidence of Mr Dorrian has been postponed until the tribunal resumes after Easter, while documents from Mr Dorrian will be released to the Garda Commissioner's legal team.
Mr Dorrian said he attended a meeting with Chief Supt Fitzpatrick in March 1999, but it was a private matter unrelated to allegations the tribunal is investigating.
Mr Michael Durack SC, for the commissioner, said it was the position of Chief Supt Fitzpatrick that Mr Dorrian had arranged the meeting. Mr Dorrian said this was not so, Chief Supt Fitzpatrick requested the meetings.
However, when Mr Durack asked what the subject of the meetings was, Mr Dorrian asked the court to rise so that he could consult his counsel. When he returned, Mr Dorrian said he was not in a position to disclose the purposes of the meetings.
Mr Justice Morris told the witness if counsel for the commissioner requested him to say what may have been discussed at the meetings, it would be open to him to argue he was entitled to claim privilege on the basis of client confidentiality.
"If you do so argue or raise any other point I will determine that on the basis of the law as I understand it and on the basis of submissions that may be made," the judge said. "On the other hand, if you don't claim privilege it is my belief that you are required to disclose what that conversation may have been."
Mr Dorrian asked that the matter be heard in camera, but Mr Justice Morris said the only two circumstances in which the tribunal could sit other than in public, were when the security of the State required that it be done, or where the giving of evidence in public would inhibit prosecutions. "So far as I can see neither of those circumstances arise in this case."
Mr Dorrian said there was no mention of Supt Kevin Lennon at his meeting with Chief Supt Fitzpatrick, and no allegation of Supt Lennon withholding arms from genuine finds was made.
The tribunal is investigating claims that Det Noel McMahon and Supt Lennon prepared explosives, together with alleged IRA informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, for use in bogus finds.