The former minister for justice, Mr Paddy Cooney, was involved in no wrongdoing regarding his authorisation of the tapping of journalist Mr Vincent Browne's telephone in 1975, the Department of Justice said yesterday.
After a settlement was reached yesterday in proceedings brought by Mr Cooney against Ireland and the Attorney General, the Department said that in authorising interceptions of telecommunication messages in his capacity as minister for justice, Mr Cooney had "complied fully and meticulously with the law".
The State agreed to pay Mr Cooney's legal costs in the case.
Mr Cooney brought the case following a settlement between the State and Mr Browne in July 1995, in which Mr Browne received £91,000 over the phone-tapping affair.
A statement issued by the Department of Justice yesterday stressed that in reaching a settlement with Mr Browne, the State had not intended to suggest or imply any wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr Cooney.
"Proceedings brought by Mr Patrick Cooney, former minister for justice, against Ireland and the Attorney General were settled today by agreement.
"In the proceedings, Mr Cooney had sought vindication of his good name and reputation against any suggestion to the contrary implied in the earlier settlement of a case between the State and Mr Vincent Browne, journalist," said the statement.
"The State wishes to make it known that in reaching a settlement with Mr Vincent Browne, journalist, it did not intend to suggest or imply any wrongdoing whatsoever by Mr Cooney as minister for justice in the exercise of his ministerial functions in relation to the interception of telecommunications messages.
"Accordingly, the State now acknowledges that the discharge by Mr Cooney of these ministerial functions had no part in the considerations which led to the settlement with Mr Vincent Browne.
"The State also wishes it to be known that in authorising interceptions of telecom on messages, Mr Cooney, in his capacity as minister for justice, complied fully and meticulously with the law and well established procedures then in being for the granting of such authorisations."