A senior barrister told the tribunal he thought a Garda investigation into allegations of high-level corruption in the force, which he brought to the attention of an Opposition TD, would create a "sideshow" and distract from the inquiry into complaints by the McBrearty family in Co Donegal.
"I think I felt at the time this was just a distraction, it was going to lead to further confusion and further delay," Martin Giblin SC said.
Mr Giblin said his focus at the time was in vindicating his client's good name and obtaining a declaration of innocence.
The allegations were outlined in a document faxed to him by Frank McBrearty snr in June 2000.
The barrister said he did not remember receiving a second document from Mr McBrearty the following month, but believed he must have done so.
He said he decided he did not want anything more to do with anonymous allegations and was "getting fed up with the whole John le Carré type of thing which was becoming a feature of the case".
Pat Marrinan SC, for the Garda Commissioner, said the allegations Mr Giblin passed on to Labour TD Brendan Howlin "were not matters that could be resolved by the Carty team and therefore lent weight to the call for a public inquiry".
Mr Giblin said he was concerned that if the Carty investigation did not complete its work, then his client's name would not be vindicated. "What I was doing was bringing my concerns to a responsible public representative, because there is nothing I could do about it."
He was making no accusations against assistant commissioners Kevin Carty and Tony Hickey.
Mr Giblin was first hired by the McBrearty family in 1997, in order to seek an injunction preventing excessive Garda inspections of the pub and nightclub belonging to Mr McBrearty.
Mr Giblin said that on June 20th, 2000, the legal team was told that more than 100 District Court prosecutions cases against the family were being withdrawn by the DPP.
"There was a certain element of bad manners in it, just a telephone call, be in Donegal tomorrow morning, all the summonses are being struck out," he said.
By June 2000, the Carty inquiry into allegations of wrongdoing in Donegal had been at work for over a year and Mr Giblin "was becoming disappointed that the Richie Barron issue wasn't being sorted out. We just couldn't understand why the Carty investigation wasn't yielding to them a declaration of their innocence."
Mr Giblin said the day after the summonses were withdrawn, Mr Howlin raised the issue in the Dáil. The barrister had planned to use the hearings on the summonses "to raise the wider issue, that these were an abuse of process".
Five days after the District Court hearing, Mr McBrearty faxed a document to Mr Giblin alleging high-level corruption and claiming the Carty inquiry was compromised.
The barrister spoke to Mr Howlin about the allegations later that evening.