Witness's life not at risk - Garda chief

Morris Tribunal: Garda authorities had no information about any threat to the life of an alleged IRA informer, Letterkenny woman…

Morris Tribunal: Garda authorities had no information about any threat to the life of an alleged IRA informer, Letterkenny woman Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, the Garda Commissioner has told the Morris tribunal.

"There is no intelligence or information to suggest that there is any threat against your client, and therefore there is no question of providing security," Commissioner Noel Conroy told Mr Paul Murray, the barrister representing Ms McGlinchey at the tribunal. At the beginning of this month, another senior garda, Chief Supt Tom Monaghan, said that Ms McGlinchey would be dead if she was a genuine informer.

Asked by Mr Murray if he was concerned that official Garda documents had gone missing, including a search warrant from March 14th, 1994, and custody records and files from December 1991, both relating to Ms McGlinchey, the Commissioner said: "I didn't know that until right this minute."

"There is an element of trust right through the organisation, and, unfortunately, if some people break that trust we have problems," Mr Conroy earlier told the tribunal.

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In its current module, the tribunal is examining allegations that two gardaí, Supt Kevin Lennon and Det Noel McMahon, planned bogus arms finds in Donegal a decade ago.

Both detectives deny the allegations made by Ms McGlinchey, and Ms McGlinchey denies she was ever an informer or a member of the IRA.

The tribunal heard how Mr Conroy, then deputy commissioner, wrote a report following correspondences to Garda HQ in 1997 from private investigator William Flynn expressing concern "that all was not well in the Donegal division". Mr Flynn was hired by Raphoe nightclub owner Mr Frank McBrearty Snr.

The McBreartys claim they became the targets of Garda harassment after members of Mr McBrearty's family became suspects in a murder investigation.

The investigation concerned the death of local cattle-dealer Richie Barron, which British and Irish pathologists have told the tribunal was most likely the result of a hit-and-run incident. An inquest returned an open verdict in 2002.

However, Mr Peter Charleton SC, for the tribunal, was critical of the Carty inquiry, an internal Garda inquiry: "Notwithstanding the urgent tone of that letter, it took the Carty team two years to report. It might therefore be inferred that, within An Garda Síochána, there is a problem."

"I wouldn't necessarily say there's a problem," Mr Conroy replied.

Asked if he thought the Carty team's approach was an appropriate model for future investigations into allegations of Garda misconduct, Mr Conroy replied: "Investigations in the past along the lines of the Carty inquiry have been very successful and I've no reason to believe it wasn't successful.

"However, there were some people who did not co-operate and they would have been dealt with down the road by disciplinary or criminal procedures."

Mr Conroy was also asked about setting up an accelerated promotion programme for college graduates.

He said this would create difficulties. "You won't get experience in university complexes," he said.

Mr Charleton also asked if the question of removing intelligence from the Garda and making it the responsibility of a separate agency was something worth looking at.

"I wouldn't think so," said Mr Conroy. "It's a very small country, this."