SMITHWICK TRIBUNAL:FORMER GARDA assistant commissioner Pat O'Toole has said that while he spoke to other former senior officers before appearing at the Smithwick Tribunal, he strongly denied it was to ensure his evidence was tailored to fit any "Garda version" of events now under examination.
Mr O’Toole told the tribunal yesterday he had spoken to his former colleagues to check the terms of reference of a historical Garda inquiry after he had read reports about the evidence to the tribunal of former minister for justice Gerry Collins. He denied he had wanted to frame his evidence to mirror any “Garda version” of the key events now being investigated.
The tribunal is inquiring into suggestions that Garda members in Dundalk colluded with the IRA in the fatal shootings of two RUC officers on March 20th, 1989.
Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were killed after they left a meeting in Dundalk Garda station and travelled back to the North by car.
Mr O’Toole said he had never seen or heard any evidence from indigenous or foreign security services that suggested any form of Garda collusion in the murders of the two RUC men.
He had read many intelligence reports at the time and none of them mentioned collusion. The suggestion of any Garda involvement in the killings “doesn’t bear thinking about”.
Mr O’Toole said he had spoken to his former colleagues to check with them the terms of reference of a historical investigation carried out by assistant commissioner Edward O’Dea.
The head of crime and security from 1996 to 2003, Mr O’Toole had told the tribunal when interviewed by its staff that the investigation carried out by Mr O’Dea had been ordered to determine if a Garda leak had in any way aided the murders of the RUC men.
However, he later said the investigation was set up under what were effectively much narrower terms of reference – to establish which Garda personnel in Dundalk knew the RUC men were visiting on the day in question.
Mr O’Toole said his desire to be clear about those terms of reference had led him to call to Garda Headquarters at Phoenix Park in Dublin to check this with Mr O’Dea. He told Justin Dillon SC, for the tribunal, that he had also spoken to now retired assistant commissioners Dermot Jennings and Jim McHugh.
However, as with his conversations with Mr O’Dea, he had not discussed his evidence to the tribunal and had only been checking the terms of the reference of the O’Dea investigation. “I’m anxious to tell the truth,” he said.
The tribunal continues on Monday when Mr O’Toole will give some of his evidence in closed session. This portion of his evidence will relate to confidential intelligence reports from the late 1980s.
He does not want to give that evidence in public session for fear of exposing some of his sources from that time.