Tribunal told of concern over leaks

Garda authorities avoided involving Dundalk Garda station in anti-terrorist operations from as far back as the early 1980s because of concerns about leaks to the IRA, the Smithwick Tribunal has been told.

Former deputy chief constable of Northern Ireland Blair Wallace told the tribunal this morning he was personally aware of up to four occasions when authorities assembled a task force from elsewhere to investigate IRA activity in north Louth.

Mr Wallace said intelligence gleaned by the RUC when he was head of special branch in Belfast occasionally referred to IRA activity in the Border region. But he recalled it had come with the caveat “that it was not worth acting on if it was given to Dundalk”.

He recalled the informant also feared for his own safety if intelligence was shared with gardaí in Dundalk.

Mr Wallace told Judge Peter Smithwick “the belief from the source was that Dundalk would immediately compromise the intelligence”. He also said he was aware of a number of occasions when the intelligence had proved accurate in relation to IRA training camps in the South.

Asked by counsel for the tribunal Mary Laverty SC if he was saying Garda headquarters would have known Dundalk was being avoided, Mr Blair said he was “quite sure that somebody in command would have said why are we bypassing Dundalk”. He said the taskforces would have had to be assembled using gardaí from other operations.

Mr Wallace also said he believed it was a mistake for the police forces North and South to come out with similar statements in the immediate aftermath of the killing of two RUC officers, rejecting the possibility of there being a mole in Dundalk Garda station, in March 1989.

“In my opinion the statement which ruled out any collusion was in fact premature, made within 24 hours," he said.

He said it may well have been done to give the impression the two forces were working well together in the background but he said in his view it was clearly “an avenue which had to be either proved or disproved” and not immediately ruled out.

The tribunal continues this afternoon.