A Garda who was arrested in connection with the leaking of documents to the media which led to the resignation of former junior minister Trevor Sargent has been released.
The garda was yesterday detained at Lucan Garda station for questioning about how correspondence from the former Green Party leader to the Garda was passed to a newspaper.
Under the Garda Síochána Act, an officer can face a €50,000 fine or up to five years in jail for disclosing confidential information.
The female garda was arrested at 10.20am after she arrived at Lucan Garda station by appointment.
She was initially arrested under the terms of the Criminal Justice Act and had her detention extended by a further six hours yesterday afternoon. She was freed last night and a file is to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Irish Times understands the woman is a suspect for the leaking of the documents.
Mr Sargent stepped down after it emerged that he had written to gardaí about a constituent who was facing criminal proceedings. He urged the investigating gardaí to drop criminal charges against constituent Dominic McGowan.
Well-placed sources say a number of people have already been interviewed as part of the Garda investigation into the leak. These include Mr Sargent, his constituency staff, and Mr McGowan.
Mr Sargent wrote a number of letters to gardaí after Mr McGowan was attacked near his home at the Cardy Rock estate in Balbriggan in September 2007.
In one of the letters to gardaí, Mr Sargent said it would be “wholly inappropriate” to prosecute Mr McGowan. However, Mr McGowan was subsequently convicted and fined for a public order offence.
When the case came to court, Mr Sargent wrote again to gardaí in February of this year asking that the superintendent “keep an eye on the case”, as he was concerned for the safety of his constituent.
When the correspondence came to light in the Evening Herald, Mr Sargent tendered his resignation as minister of state for food and horticulture within hours, accepting that he had made an "error of judgment".
While Opposition parties initially blamed Fianna Fáil for leaking the correspondence, speculation soon focused on gardaí after the correspondence was published in a newspaper.
Handwritten notations on copies of some of the letters indicate they were faxed by gardaí in Balbriggan to Harcourt Square.
A note on the top of Mr Sargent’s leaked letter to Supt Joe Kelly of Balbriggan Garda station reads “fax to C and C”, which is understood to be the Garda’s command and control centre at Harcourt Square.
Another has the note “ASF”, the Garda initials used for an assault.