The family of murdered RUC Chief Supt Harry Breen has criticised Minister for Justice Alan Shatter for linking concern for them with the new Smithwick Tribunal deadline.
Family solicitor John McBurney told The Irish Times that Mr Shatter's expression of concern for the Breens was "insulting and rejected in such circumstances".
Mr McBurney released a number e-mails he sent to Mr Shatter on behalf of his clients seeking an urgent meeting before the introduction of a Dáil motion which imposed the new tribunal deadline.
Mr McBurney said the Breen family had been concerned the new deadline would "hamper and damage" the tribunal's attempts to persuade witnesses from outside the jurisdiction to give evidence.
In the e-mails, Mr McBurney also asked Mr Shatter for a visitor's pass to the Dáil so he might observe the debate on the changed tribunal terms of reference.
However he claimed he received only an acknowledgment of his emails, and no "substantive reply".
Speaking during a break in the Smithwick Tribunal hearings today Mr McBurney said "in the light of failure of Mr Shatter to give any substantive response" to the concerns of the Breen family which had been raised in the e-mail, "it was quite disingenuous" to link a time limit to the interests of the family. He said the family "absolutely rejected" such a link.
"The fact is that when he was speaking he evinced a desire to be concerned for the families and then ignored these e-mails," Mr McBurney said.
He described the new deadline as "an arbitrary, unnecessary and damaging time limit" and an intrusion into the working of the tribunal "which the family found insulting".
Mr McBurney said he had first written to Mr Shatter asking for a meeting by e-mail on May 28th and later that day sent a follow up e-mail explaining he was "anxious to be permitted to attend [the Dáil] as an observer".
He received a reply from the Minister's private secretary two days saying:
"I wish to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail and confirm the matter is currently being dealt with".
Mr McBurney said he had then written to Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin on May 31st and had received a reply from the Tánaiste. Mr Gilmore said he was "pleased to acknowledge [the e-mail] and to advise that I have noted the contents".
Mr McBurney said he had not received a reply from Mr Howlin.
Speaking in Co Limerick today, Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisted the Government was not seeking to hinder the tribunal’s work.
"We want to see a situation where tribunals are able to do their work completely independently but that they don’t have to continue indefinitely,” he said. “It is the taxpayer who will pay the cost of this and the taxpayer is entitled to have progress reports because they don’t want to see a situation where a tribunal is set up and continues indefinitely,” he continued.
Separately Amnesty International Ireland called Mr Shatter to withdraw the 30th November deadline.
Colm O’Gorman, its director, said: “It is clear that Justice Smithwick believes the deadline, and the publicity surrounding it, have compromised the independence of the tribunal.
“It is also disturbing to learn that witnesses who had intended cooperating with the tribunal are now reconsidering this because of the Government’s decision to impose this deadline.
“The families of RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan deserve the truth about how they met their deaths and what role, if any, members of An Garda Síochána played in their deaths,” said Mr O’Gorman.
Chief Supt Harry Breen was killed in an IRA ambush along with colleague Supt Bob Buchanan as they returned to Northern Ireland from a meeting in Dundalk Garda station on March 20th, 1989.
The Smithwick Tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that members of An Garda Siochána or other employees of the State colluded in the killings.