The Government has again rejected Opposition allegations that it received a copy of a Garda inquiry into misconduct by Donegal gardaí during 2000 and 2001 at the height of demands for an inquiry into the McBrearty affair.
During often furious Dáil exchanges, the Labour Party charged that then minister for justice John O'Donoghue had told the Dáil he received a copy of the investigation by assistant commissioner Kevin Carty.
"This is not a minor matter concerning some incidental documentation that got lost in the amalgam of material that goes through a minister's departmental office," said Labour TD Éamon Gilmore.
Mr O'Donoghue and Justice Minister Michael McDowell had given different accounts of their knowledge of the Carty report.
Challenging Mr McDowell yesterday, Mr Gilmore said: "I am serious when I say: 'We are in resignation territory here.' It is an extremely serious matter when one minister comes into the House and says something is black and another comes in a few years later and says it is white."
He added: "One or other of the ministers is not telling the truth to the House."
Requests to the Garda during 2000 and 2001 for a full copy of the Carty report were refused by then commissioner Pat Byrne, and a copy was not received until early 2002. However, then deputy commissioner Noel Conroy sent a 37-page summary of the Carty report to Mr O'Donoghue in May 2000.
An extract from the Dáil record on May 21st, 2001, supports Mr O'Donoghue's rejection of the Opposition charges, though subsequent answers by him were less clear.
He was then asked by Fine Gael's Alan Shatter if he intended "to publish the reports of the earlier investigations into allegations of Garda misconduct in the Donegal area and, in this regard, if I have received the completed reports from the Garda commissioner.
"On the latter point, the deputy will be aware from recent correspondence that I have not seen the investigation file nor would it be normal practice for the minister to do so. I have, of course, as I have previously informed the House, received a report of the assistant commissioner's investigation from the Garda commissioner," Mr O'Donoghue said.
