Two politicians criticised in the final Morris Tribunal report over their handling of serious but unverified allegations against senior gardai, defended their actions tonight.
The tribunal said today it was satisfied that false allegations against Asst Commissioner Kevin Carty and retired Asst Commissioner Tony Hickey were given an authority to which they were never entitled by the former Fine Gael TD Jim Higgins and Labour TD Brendan Howlin, who did not fully vet the accusations before bringing them to the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. John O'Donoghue, who established the tribunal
Speaking this evening, Brendan Howlin said he was "surprised" that comments would be made reflecting on the action of Mr Higgins and himself.
"I am confident that I acted responsibly at all times when allegations were made to me by a criminal lawyer with more than 20 years practice regarding senior gardaí in 2000. I brought the allegations in private to the then
Minister for Justice and asked that he would have them investigated. I am at a loss to know how I might have dealt with the allegations differently," said Mr Howlin.
His parliamentary colleague, former deputy and now MEP, Jim Higgins, said that he disagreed with suggestions that he and Mr Howlin had acted irresponsibly.
"Having discussed the matter of theinformation that had come into our possession from previously reliable
sources, we jointly decided that rather than going into the Dáil and airing the matter publicly under Dáil privilege, the proper course of action was to bring the material privately to the attention of the then Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue.
Separately, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said today that "the unacceptable actions" of individual members of An Garda Síochána outlined in the Morris Tribunal reports, "represent a dark period" in the history of the organisation.
Speaking after the publication of the final reports from the Tribunal into allegations of corruption in the Donegal
division of the Garda, the Commissioner said such actions did a grave disservice to the tradition of An Garda
Síochána
Restating the apology he made following the publication of the Sixth Report of the tribunal, the Commissioner said that it remained "a matter of profound regret" that individuals "were subjected to police actions which fell far short of the high standards which the community is entitled to expect from all members of An Garda Síochána."
Annoucing the publication of the final reports, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern described the behaviour of
individual members of Gardai in Donegal during the 1990s as "disgraceful" and said that such actions should not be allowed to overshadow the dedication shown by the vast majority of members.
