THE GOVERNMENT’S decision to impose a deadline of November 30th for the Smithwick Tribunal’s final report triggered a serious dispute between the Minister for Justice and the chairman of the inquiry.
Correspondence between Judge Peter Smithwick and Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, lodged in the Dáil library yesterday, discloses the judge held that the Government interfered with the tribunal’s work in the decision to impose the deadline publicly.
In his first letter to Mr Shatter on May 27th, the judge said he regarded it as “a wholly inappropriate attempt by the executive to interfere with the independence of my tribunal”.
He was “deeply concerned” a publicly imposed deadline would compromise its work.
Six letters were exchanged. In a later letter the judge said one important witness from outside the State was reconsidering his co-operation.
The tribunal is investigating allegations of State or Garda collusion in the IRA ambush of two senior RUC officers near the Border in 1989.
Mr Shatter defended the decision in correspondence and in interviews yesterday. He rejected the contention that Government had interfered with the inquiry’s work. He said the deadline was in line with the timeframe indicated by the judge when both men met in early May.
“We cannot have open-ended tribunals sitting in secret without any accountability to the Dáil or to the public,” he told RTÉ last night.
Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Dara Calleary accused Mr Shatter and Taoiseach Enda Kenny of misleading the Dáil, given they had said there would be no interference in the tribunal by the Government.