Mr Desmond O'Malley will respond tomorrow night to reports of the changing and concealment of a statement by a key Arms Trial witness during his period as minister for justice.
In a television programme to be broadcast by RTE, Mr O'Malley is expected to give his first detailed comments on the revelation that the Garda statement of the former director of military intelligence, Col Michael Hefferon, was altered before being included in the book of evidence for the 1970 trial.
The alterations excluded some 16 references to the then minister for defence, Mr Jim Gibbons, being aware of the plan to import arms. These references were marked on the original statement in handwriting believed to be that of the then secretary of the Department of Justice, Mr Peter Berry, although there is no evidence he played any role in actually deleting them. The statement is also marked "seen by minister".
The original statement of Col Hefferon, which said Mr Gibbons knew of the planned arms importation, was discovered in the National Archives by Capt James Kelly, the former intelligence officer who was among those acquitted in 1970 of a charge of conspiring to import weapons illegally. The document was in a file released by the Department of Justice under the 30-year rule. Details of it were first broadcast on RTE's Prime Time programme.
The Irish Times later revealed that another document on the file signed by Mr O'Malley directed that the contents of the file - which included many other documents as well as Col Hefferon's original statement - not be disclosed. The direction that privilege be claimed was signed on the second day of the second Arms Trial in October 1970.
The fact that Col Hefferon made his original statement was never revealed to the trial. When eventually called to give evidence by the judge, Col Hefferon repeated that Mr Gibbons knew of the plan to import arms.
Mr O'Malley will also give an insight into the sense of crisis and personal threat he experienced during his years as minister for justice, 1970 to 1973. He says he carried a gun for three or four years at the insistence of the Garda. He slept with it under his pillow and carried it in a holster under his left armpit by day. Gardai brought him to Kilmainham every six months to fire it.
He says there were marches to his house in Corbally in Limerick. Coffins were thrown into the garden. His wife and children were moved from the house by gardai on several occasions for their protection.
Once, when staying with a friend in Waterloo Road in Dublin, gardai rushed into the house at 7 a.m. and told him a rifle with a telescopic sight had been seen in a flat across the road and they feared he would be shot if he went out the door.
Tomorrow night's programme is the first in a four-part series on Mr O'Malley's life.