Gardaí have no intelligence as to the identity of the person who killed Denis Donaldson, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.
Mr Ahern said in Antrim yesterday that whatever resources were needed would be committed to the investigation into the murder.
"The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and the gardaí have already made it absolutely clear that they will carry out an intensive investigation to try and find out who perpetrated this terrible death," he said.
"We have no intelligence, no information, to indicate whether, as I said in the Dáil, it is retribution for some past event or some falling out along the way or whether it is some dissident group."
Senior Garda sources who spoke to The Irish Times yesterday confirmed Mr Ahern's assessment of the investigation so far. However, they were optimistic that the quality of information emerging would improve.
"As with all of these investigations, there are bits and pieces of information coming in but there is no theory gaining ground over another," one informed source said. "You can be virtually certain that it was a member or members of the republican family. The picture will firm up in the next few days but before then anything that emerges will be just speculation."
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau spent yesterday examining Mr Donaldson's cottage near Glenties, Co Donegal. He had been shot up to four times.
Apart from the continued examination of the house, gardaí scoured the countryside around the remote cottage looking for a murder weapon or any other clue that might assist in their search for the killer. Members of the Garda sub-aqua unit also joined the search.
The investigation is being lead by Chief Supt Terry McGinn of the Donegal division. Members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Special Detective Unit have also been drafted in from Dublin to assist.
They are likely to remain in the area until next week when the initial stage of the investigation will be complete.
