The High Court is to decide whether a Garda detective inspector is entitled to be indemnified by the State against an award of €275,000 damages made earlier this year to a retired garda and a woman.
The award arose from the plaintiffs' separate unlawful arrest and detention for three days under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, on suspicion of IRA membership.
Mr Joe Walshe, a retired garda, and Ms Kay Bedford were awarded damages of €175,000 and €100,000 respectively from a High Court jury last May.
They had sued Det Insp Anthony Fennessy, the Minister for Justice and the Attorney General, arising from their separate arrests in Limerick on September 27th, 1991.
The case was mentioned to Mr Justice Quirke yesterday for the purposes of getting a date for the hearing of an application for indemnity by Det Insp Fennessy.
The judge said he was anxious the matter be dealt with as soon as possible and asked the parties to seek the most suitable date from the High Court Chief Registrar. He listed the matter for mention again on Tuesday next.
During the hearing, Det Insp Fennessy said the two people were arrested on the orders of then Chief Superintendent, now Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne. They were arrested separately in Limerick on a Friday evening and brought to the Bridewell Garda station in Dublin where they were interrogated and detained until the following Sunday morning.
It was accepted by the defendants during the hearing that neither Mr Walshe, who was a garda stationed in Limerick in 1991, nor Ms Bedford had anything to do with the IRA.
Insp Fennessy told the hearing that, if it was left to him, he would not have arrested then Garda Walshe on suspicion of being a member of the IRA. Inspector Fennessy added he accepted Mr Walshe and Ms Bedford were not members of the IRA.
A garda sergeant also told the court Ms Bedford had told him she could not understand why she had been arrested on suspicion of being a member of the Provisional IRA as she knew nothing abut the IRA, while another garda sergeant said he regretted what happened to the two plaintiffs.
After two days of legal argument, Mr Justice Quirke ruled the arrests were unlawful and told the jury its only task was to assess what damages should be paid.
The jury decided Mr Walshe (61), Oaklawn Drive, Dromin, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Ms Bedford (58), Sir Harry's Mall, Limerick, should receive €175,000 and €100,000 respectively.
Legal costs of the case could amount to €1 million.