John Carthy called to his solicitor twice in the days before the standoff with gardai around his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford, according to the Garda report on the siege.
The 112-page report issued yesterday by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights, contains the findings of a nine-week internal Garda investigation into the incident headed by Chief Supt Adrian Culligan.
Mr Mark Connellan, a solicitor practising in Longford who had previously represented Mr Carthy, was out of the country when he called to his offices on April 17th and 18th, the day before the start of the 25-hour siege.
Mr Carthy did not mention him by name during the siege but the report says a solicitor should have been brought when he requested one. The report adds: "However, it cannot be said that the outcome would have been any different bearing in mind Carthy's responses and actions to his closest friends."
Much of the report's contents emerged during the four-day inquest into Mr Carthy's death this month, including the movement of gardai around the house and the actions of the Garda Emergency Response Unit. Members of the ERU were left with no alternative but to shoot Mr Carthy when he came out of his home with a shotgun, it concludes.
Gardai showed "extreme courage and perseverance", allowing Mr Carthy travel 41 metres from the house and giving him opportunities to put down his weapon before he was shot and killed 8.5 metres from the command post.
"However, Carthy failed to respond to all exhortations and the members were left with no alternative but to discharge their weapons. They acted entirely within the Garda Siochana Regulations and also within the law of the State."
Reports in The Irish Times and Longford Leader after the shooting, that gardai in the ERU unit at Abbeylara had failed a gun training course, are described in the report as untrue. "This investigation can confirm that none of the members deployed at Abbeylara were on the training course described in both articles, and also the weapon described in the training programme was not on issue to the ERU on this occasion."
Mr Carthy made 20 calls to his sister Marie's mobile number on April 15th and 22 on April 17th, and the report says "there was obviously some difficulty" but Ms Carthy could not account for the calls.
There was escalating pressure on Mr Carthy in the lead-up to the siege, the report states. He lost his job in Galway, broke up with his girlfriend and wondered whether he could afford to furnish the family's new home.
Threats made to locals leading up to the brief confiscation of his firearm in 1998 are also outlined. A local farmer said Mr Carthy had threatened to shoot everyone at the local handball alley.