Serious deficiencies in communications between the offices of the DPP and the Chief State Solicitor were signalled in a confidential report months before organisational difficulties in both offices led to the decision not to seek a retrial in the case of Ms Nora Wall and Mr Paul McCabe.
The internal CSSO report also claimed documentation to the CSSO from the gardai for books of evidence was "rarely received in a presentable format". It criticised the relationship between the CSSO and Government Departments, particularly the Department of Defence in its handling of the Army deafness cases.
The report, Recommendations for change in the Chief State Solicitor's Office, stated that general communications between sections of the CSSO and the DPP's offices "needed to be improved".
It called for the District Court and criminal trials sections of the CSSO to meet "to iron out any mutual misunderstandings" and to agree on their requirements from the DPP's office.
"Similar meeting with the CSSO side and the DPP's office should follow. Gardai could be involved in these discussions if this is felt to be necessary," the report, released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act, stated.
CSSO staff found there was no "consistency" in the provision of directions from the DPP's office, according to the report. "Case references and case law should always be quoted but this is not always done."
It recommended that regular meetings be organised between the CSSO crime sections, the DPP's office and gardai to "clear up on misunderstandings regarding procedures and introduce contacts to each other".
In his report last November on why he was not seeking a retrial in the case of Ms Wall and Mr McCabe, who were charged with rape, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr James Hamilton, concluded that failures on the part of the CSSO contributed to the fact the case was not to be retried.
However, Mr Hamilton said the failure must be "attributed in part to the shortfall in resources in that office (CSSO) and overheavy workloads carried by its officers". The CSSO report - circulated nine months before the DPP decision - makes strong references to difficulties in the office due to staff shortages.
Mr Hamilton said in his report on the case: "These problems have worsened in the recent past and require to be addressed as a matter of urgency."
The DPP explained in his report how the prosecution came to call one witness, Patricia Phelan, despite an earlier direction by the DPP in April 1997 that she should not be called. He said the main reason this happened was that prosecuting counsel "failed to recall" the earlier direction and in turn there was a failure on the part of other lawyers involved to pick up on this contradiction.
Mr Hamilton said that as far as was known this was the only occasion in 25 years that a witness was wrongly called. He recommended a number of improvements in the procedure of processing criminal trials aimed at avoiding a repeat.
The report was carried out by the Department of Finance Centre for Management and Organisation Development on behalf of the CSSO as part of its efforts to install a new work management system.