A FORMER assistant commissioner of the Garda said he spoke with lawyers representing the Garda Commissioner but did not seek their advice before he changed a statement he had earlier made to the Smithwick Tribunal.
Retired assistant commissioner Pat O’Toole amended his evidence at the tribunal on Friday to say the reason for an internal inquiry following the deaths in 1989 of two RUC officers as they returned from a meeting in Dundalk was to examine “the circumstances and arrangements of their visit”.
Mr O’Toole had previously said allegations of collusion may have been part of the reason for the inquiry.
He said that in mid-November 2011 he met with retired assistant commissioner Edward O’Dea, who carried out the 1989 inquiry, and asked him what the terms of reference for the investigation were.
But Mr O’Toole did not amend his initial statement to the tribunal when he made a supplementary statement the following month, on December 5th, 2011.
Mr O’Toole said he was unaware of a 1985 RUC special branch report which said Dundalk detective sergeant Owen Corrigan was providing information on security force movements “to the boys”.
He said such a report would have been investigated by gardaí.
Mr Corrigan denies allegations of collusion, describing them as a “monstrous lie”.
Mr O’Toole said that intelligence produced by Mr Corrigan was “reliable” and had led to successful prosecutions of IRA members.
The tribunal is looking at allegations that a Garda leak led to the IRA ambush in which the two RUC officers, chief superintendent Harry Breen and superintendent Bob Buchanan, were killed as they returned from a meeting in Dundalk garda station.
“For a policeman to be accused of involvement in the murder of two other policeman must surely be the most horrendous accusation that can be made against any policeman,” Mr O’Toole said.
“I have not seen any evidence whatsoever or any intelligence whatsoever that there was a mole in Dundalk.”