The minister for justice at the time of the Arms Trial, Mr Des O'Malley, told the house yesterday that he had no hand, act or part in the changes or editing of witness statements.

This task had been undertaken by the prosecution legal team, who "appeared to have acted with total propriety" in accordance with accepted practice of the day, he said during the debate on the inquiry into the Arms Trial. "I trust that any fair-minded person would conclude that the conspiracy theory has been shown to be without foundation."

He said he welcomed the reports of the Minister for Justice, the Attorney General and the Garda Commissioner. It was clear from these reports that the changes to the Hefferon statement were made by the prosecution legal team in conjunction with the investigating gardai.

It seemed the changes were made primarily to comply with the rules of evidence. "Neither I nor Mr Peter Berry (former secretary of the Department of Justice) had any involvement with such changes."

In addition, the "claims of privilege" were made on foot of legal advice, and the "certificates of privilege themselves" were drafted in the Attorney General's office.

The reports were perfectly compatible with his statement of May 9th, following the controversial RTE Prime Time programme on the Arms Trial.

The clear impression created by the programme, he said, was that changes to Col Michael Hefferon's statement corresponded closely to the markings apparently made by Mr Berry; and that he, as minister, had been furnished with the altered Hefferon statement and "therefore had colluded in deliberate and deceitful changes" to it.

The reports of the Garda Commissioner and Attorney General made it clear that all the evidence demonstrated these changes were made by the prosecution legal team and typed by gardai and that there was no involvement by him or any member of the Department of Justice in that process.

There was also reason to suppose, Mr O'Malley said, that some senior gardai suspected that a prominent politician was fully aware of this earlier importation and had turned a blind eye to it. "These same gardai became aware through intelligence reports that by December 1969 certain politicians were funding illegal organisations."

The events of 1969-1970 had presented a threat of unparalleled gravity to the State. Despite the acquittals there was, undoubtedly, a wide-ranging conspiracy to import arms for the use of illegal organisations in Northern Ireland.

There was no evidence the government ever purported to take a decision to import arms for this purpose, said Mr O'Malley, "and the evidence refutes that contention".