A Donegal detective has said he holds no animosity over criticism of his work on a surveillance operation on an alleged IRA bomb in early 1997 and was not trying to scapegoat the officer who criticised him.
Det Garda PJ Keating said he was part of a surveillance team before a search of a north Donegal farm in March 1997.
The tribunal has heard this search was based on false information that an IRA bomb was stored in a shed.
"We were told we had blown the operation," Det Keating said. He said he was told this came from Supt Kevin Lennon. He and the other officers were told a vehicle was going to collect the bomb from the farm, but the surveillance team had been spotted by the IRA.
Det Keating said that there was a resentment at the suggestion that they had blown the surveillance. "Is there an element of payback now?" asked tribunal chairman Mr Justice Frederick Morris.
"There would have been umbrage taken that your work was criticised," Det Garda Keating said. "At the same time Kevin Lennon was my superintendent and if he asked me to do a job I would do it to the best of my ability.
"I don't have any feeling of ill will or comeback time," he told the chairman.
Det Garda Keating said that after a search failed to find the bomb, they were then told to search for an arms bunker on a hill near the farm, but nothing was found.
Paul McDermott SC, for the tribunal, asked if the search was being used in retrospect to discredit Mr Lennon, and scapegoat him for events in Donegal.
"Nobody shouted loud about the search," he said. "Why didn't they shout out about it?"
Det Keating said he understood Chief Supt Fitzpatrick and Supt Lennon were told detectives had concerns.
"Whether they got them or not I don't know. They would have to be asked. Obviously Supt Lennon says he didn't get these objections."
Det Garda Keating said the main reason he arrested Raphoe publican Mark Quinn in December 4th, 1996, as an accessory to murder was the evidence of an "independent witness", Martin Laird, who said he saw Mark McConnell leaving Mr Quinn's pub the morning after Richie Barron died.