The mother of the young man shot dead by gardai in Abbeylara, Co Longford, last week has told the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, she was not compelled to leave home because of a domestic dispute on the morning the siege began.
The new information came as the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, issued a statement confirming he had only ruled out an independent inquiry (into the killing of Mr John Carthy) "as of now".
Earlier reports had suggested Mrs Rose Carthy called the gardai when she was ejected from her home on April 19th by her 27-year-old son.
After visiting the Carthy home yesterday, Mr Reynolds said Mrs Carthy had told him she did not leave the house under the threat of a gun. "His mother told me they never had cross words between them, that when she left the house that day she left to go and visit her sister, which she did every day at the same time and he wasn't surprised to see her going. She didn't leave under the threat of a gun or anything like that," he said.
"He was in bad form that morning. He did not go to work. He complained he wasn't feeling good and when she went, leaving the house, he had the gun in his hand, but he had a licensed gun and she didn't particularly pass too much attention on that," Mr Reynolds added.
He urged Mr O'Donoghue to complete the investigation into what happened in Abbeylara as soon as possible.
He also suggested that new laws may be necessary to increase the weapons options available to the Garda. "There seems to be surprise that there wasn't some other way of overwhelming the young chap."
He added that the family and locals believed the presence of up to 60 gardai at the scene was "over the top".