No conclusions have been reached by the Garda on who was behind the robbery of a security van in Dalkey, the Minister for Justice said.
Mr O'Donoghue was replying to the Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Mr Jim Higgins, who said that the Minister should confirm once and for all that the robbery was a paramilitary operation.
"Would the Minister not acknowledge that he knows, the Garda know, I know, the general public knows, that this was a paramilitary raid? It had all the hallmarks of a paramilitary raid, it was executed as a paramilitary raid and it should be acknowledged as such."
Mr O'Donoghue said that recent suggestions that the Garda or the Government was in any way seeking to suppress knowledge of Provisional IRA involvement in the robbery was totally without foundation.
Mr Higgins said that where AK47 weapons were used, there was paramilitary involvement. "It was either Provisional IRA or a distant IRA group."