Bruton says he never tried to silence Higgins

Former taoiseach John Bruton has said he never attempted to silence his justice spokesman Jim Higgins and prevent him from mentioning allegations of Garda corruption in Donegal in the Dáil.

However, the EU Ambassador to the US told the Morris tribunal yesterday that he recalled a member of the Garda Complaints Board, Dermot O'Callaghan, telling him over lunch on a constituency visit to Dundalk on February 25th, 2000, that Mr Higgins ought to "be careful" of the allegations he was raising.

Mr O'Callaghan has acknowledged that he was concerned about Mr Higgins's allegations but has denied he was at the lunch or ever spoke to Mr Bruton on the subject.

Mr Bruton told the tribunal a note in his diary written on the day of the constituency visit read: "Jim Higgins ought be careful - Dermot O'Callaghan would take a call". The note was in place with two other notes relating to constituency business of which he had been made aware during the trip.

Following the visit to Dundalk Mr Bruton contacted Mr Higgins and raised the issue. Mr Bruton said he did this because he knew Mr O'Callaghan to be "a serious person and a member of the complaints board" and he did not want Fine Gael "which had founded the institutions of the State, to be undermining those institutions" if there was no basis for the allegations. But he said he had been given a categoric assurance from Mr Higgins that there was evidence to back up the allegations and he had not pressed Mr Higgins to call Mr O'Callaghan or to refrain from raising the issue in the Dáil.

The tribunal also heard Frank McBrearty had made a complaint to the Garda Complaints Board to the effect that Mr Bruton had been approached inappropriately by a member of the Garda Complaints Board, Mr O'Callaghan. The board had written to Mr Bruton in August 2001 seeking information on the alleged approach.

In a two-line letter Mr Bruton replied: "No member of the Garda Complaints Board asked me to silence members of my party endeavouring to bring this case to the floor of the Dáil."

When Paul McDermott SC, for the tribunal, put it Mr Bruton yesterday that the reply "was a very direct response and would appear to suggest you weren't approached by anybody on the Garda Complaints Board", Mr Bruton replied that he had directed his reply to the question which had been posed.

"I felt if I had started to expand on the matter that I would be in some way indirectly suggesting that there was a possibility that somebody asked me to silence Mr Higgins."

He added that "nobody asked me to silence Mr Higgins and I didn't want to give any legs to that suggestion".

Mr Bruton said he knew Mr O'Callaghan to be an honest man and it was possible he, Mr Bruton, was mixing up different memories of his meetings with him.

However, Mr O'Callaghan told the tribunal that while he was concerned about Mr Higgins, he did not express those concerns to Mr Bruton at the lunch or any other time. "I wasn't invited. I didn't attend. I wasn't present," he asserted. Mr O'Callaghan said it was possible that he had commented socially, possibly "in a bar or the golf club" and that these concerns had been relayed to Mr Bruton.