The Garda Siochana has said it will not make public the findings of its investigation into the shooting dead by gardai of an armed man in Co Longford this week.
A Garda spokesman said: "In line with policy, it will be an internal inquiry, and it is normal procedure not to make public the details of any such inquiry."
He added that the findings of the post-mortem, completed on the body of Mr John Carthy (27) yesterday, could not be disclosed as they were subject to the investigation announced by the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne.
The Irish Times has learned that the armed Garda unit responsible for shooting the unstable man in Co Longford had only recently begun training in sniping skills with the Army, but none of the police officers involved had completed the course. Training available from the Army, which began within the past month, would have also allowed what is known as a "less than lethal" response to Mr Carthy.
The Garda Press Office yesterday said it did not know how many shots were fired at Mr Carthy. On Thursday the office confirmed that Mr Carthy had fired 22 shots from his shotgun while in the house. The Press Office said it also did not know if Mr Carthy was hit by a burst of automatic fire.
However, local Garda sources said Mr Carthy was pointing his shotgun at a uniformed garda who was on duty on the road near his house. The armed members of the Emergency Response Unit shouted at him to drop his weapon and when he refused to do so he was shot in the body with a burst of fire from an HK33 rifle. He died almost immediately.
The training given gardai is specifically to kill someone perceived as posing a threat to life. There is no training or weapons made available to injure or debilitate someone like Mr Carthy. He was armed with a double-barrelled shotgun and No 6 cartridges, which are used principally for wildfowling and pest control.
The cartridges fired from the shotgun could have killed. Mr Carthy fired a shot at the first Garda squad car that came to his house. The windshield took much of the blast and the two officers inside were uninjured.
Last night Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, was among a number of politicians and observers to call for the inquiry findings to be made public. "Depending on the result, a further independent inquiry may be necessary," he said.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the Garda's failure to publish details of its policy on the use of force rendered the investigation "meaningless" and an independent inquiry was necessary.
The internal inquiry - headed by Chief Supt Adrian Culligan from Cork - will seek to establish whether Mr Carthy fired a shot before he was gunned down on the road outside his home, half a mile from the village of Abbeylara. It will also ask whether gardai could have used less force in bringing the incident to an end.