A 2005 magazine article which alleged the IRA had tapped a private Garda phone line in Dundalk telephone exchange was described as “rubbish” at the Smithwick Tribunal this morning.
Tommy Commins, a retired senior telecoms inspector in the Drogheda district told the tribunal the article contained a number of inaccuracies and described a confused methodology which he said demonstrated that whoever supplied the information for the article "hadn't a clue what he was talking about".
The article in Phoenix Magazine in 2005 claimed the IRA had gained access to the cable chamber beneath Dundalk Telephone exchange and had cut into a cable containing 400 pairs of wires to identify and tap a single pair coming from Dundalk Garda Station. The magazine claimed the IRA had used this information to assist them in a number of killings in a three year period from 1987.
But Mr Commins said "my opinion of this [method] is that it is a load of rubbish". He said if the cable had been slit in the manner described an audible alarm would have sounded.
Asked by counsel for the tribunal Dara Hayes what were the chances of the IRA recording device, being hidden in a "jointers" equipment box for three years, he replied: "The chances are nil".
Mr Commins said it "would have been standing out a mile. We'd all have seen it you know". Asked about the possibility of such a box being accessed and tapes changed every day – or between 9.20 am and 10.15am on the day two RUC officers were ambushed and killed - he said "it's just not possible".
He also said signs of interference with the cables, such as cutting in a manner described in the article would have been left by such a tap, and there was no evidence of this.
He said the article's suggestion that staff in the exchange had been trained by British Telecom operators was incorrect as the Irish authorities had opted for a French digital system which was different to the British system. In addition the article's suggestions that staff were interviewed over the alleged discovery of the tap, were incorrect. He said he would have known about such a thing and even be involved in the interviews as well as being interviewed himself.
He said he believed "someone with very, very little knowledge of telecommunications or the infrastructure, or the knowledge of how to do it, contacted the journalist who wanted to write something that a lot of people would believe".
Mr Commins said if someone wanted to tap a line it would have been much easier to put the tap in the main distribution framework where it may not have been detected because of the number of wires, and conversations could be diverted to another line where they could be monitored from a remote location elsewhere in Dundalk.
