Decision due on making public RUC's take on Garda mole

Smithwick TribunalThe Smithwick Tribunal is to decide on Tuesday whether to make public the "grading" or credibility the RUC attached to an intelligence document that named a member of the Garda as an IRA mole.

The tribunal has previously heard the RUC special branch intelligence document, known as an “SB50”, named former detective Owen Corrigan as a man who was passing information to the IRA.

The tribunal has been told the SB50 was compiled from information given to the RUC by northern businessman and grain smuggler John McAnulty. Mr McAnulty was later abducted from a pub near the Border in July 1989 and shot by the IRA.

Information relating to the weight the RUC gave to the document naming Mr Corrigan and the credibility it attached to both the information and the source, was discussed by the tribunal in closed session earlier this month. Yesterday Mark Robinson, for the PSNI, said his client had concerns about the grading being made public, noting that it had implications “for national security”.