The Garda has acknowledged that it did not carry out a search for Mr Paul McQuaid, the young man whose body was found in a public lane in Dublin city centre close to Judge Roy Beans pub from which he disappeared on May 12th.
It appears that Mr McQuaid (25) fell from a fire escape ladder above the lane off Wicklow Street. Gardai can establish no obvious explanation as to why he climbed the fire escape.
Gardai would not say yesterday if Mr McQuaid's death was being treated as suspicious or an accident. His wallet and jacket were missing when the body was found.
According to sources, the decision not to carry out a search for Mr McQuaid was prompted by the costs incurred in Garda resources and overtime in the search for Mr Trevor Deely, the other young man who disappeared in Dublin on December 15th and who has not been traced.
A spokesman for the Garda press office said some 12 gardai, based at Clontarf, were assigned to the inquiry into the disappearance of Mr McQuaid.
Asked if the area around Grafton Street was searched he said: "No, but where would they start? You'd be as well starting looking in Wicklow as in Wicklow Street."
Chief Supt Bill O'Donoghue of Pearse Street station, near the bar from which Mr McQuaid disappeared, said it had not been the responsibility of Pearse Street to conduct a search.
Clontarf Garda station, in charge of the investigation as Mr McQuaid lived in Marino, would not comment yesterday.