Morris Tribunal: A former Donegal chief superintendent has denied that it was Garda policy not to prosecute alleged informer Ms Adrienne McGlinchey.
Mr Seán Ginty, who retired in 1998, is giving evidence regarding the Garda's handling of Ms McGlinchey during the early 1990s.
"If it was policy then it would give blanket approval to what she did, and that was never the intention," Mr Ginty told Supt Kevin Lennon, who is representing himself before the tribunal.
"There was only the one incidence where I said she should not be prosecuted, let her out," Mr Ginty said.
This was after Ms McGlinchey was found in possession of walkie-talkies.
But he added that even then, the matter was left open for the possibility to take action in the future.
There was no such thing as a "hands-off policy" with regard to prosecution.
However, Mr Ginty told the tribunal that the questioning of Ms McGlinchey "was something in the nature of a charade".
He said the gardaí already knew what Ms McGlinchey was doing.
"She was working for us."
Mr Ginty said he believed that Det Noel McMahon and Supt (then Insp) Kevin Lennon "knew everything that was to be known because of their contact with her on an ongoing basis.
"They had to go through a kind of a charade to prevent gardaí from concluding that she was an informer," Mr Ginty said.
Ms McGlinchey could have been arrested by Det McMahon after her flat was searched on March 14th, 1994, "to perpetuate the notion that she needed to be arrested, that she was not an informer", he said.
The former chief superintendent said it would not have been approved of if Ms McGlinchey's flat was tidied up to keep suspicion off Ms McGlinchey. "That would be going far too far."
The tribunal also sat in closed session yesterday to hear evidence from Mr Ginty regarding C77s, confidential documents relating to subversive activity, which have been deemed privileged by the Garda Commissioner.
The tribunal is looking into claims that Ms McGlinchey, an alleged informer, together with Supt Kevin Lennon and Det Noel McMahon, prepared explosives for subsequent use in bogus arms finds by gardaí.
Both officers deny those claims, and Ms McGlinchey says she was never an informer.
