GARDAI accepting extradition warrants from British police must in future sign a receipt to avoid any possibility of blame being wrongly apportioned.
The existence of a receipting system last April would have ended speculation that the British authorities were responsible for the production of an incomplete photocopy of an extradition warrant for Mr Anthony Duncan.
In future cases, gardai taking extradition warrants from New Scotland Yard will fill out documents acknowledging the original papers were placed in their custody.
The Department of Justice and the Garda moved yesterday to counter a report in the Sunday Independent that the Department was told "within days" of the failed extradition attempt that the force accepted it had either lost or shredded the original warrant.
Opposition politicians are insisting the Government is "more than economical with the truth" in claiming it was not aware, shortly after the Duncan case collapsed, of the Garda's role in losing or destroying the original warrant.
A Garda statement yesterday said the report in the Sunday Independent suggested the Garda authorities had, before May 20th, established what the "factual situation" was about the missing original warrant and that this information was passed to the Department of Justice.
"There is no truth in this. The factual situation was established as a consequence of an investigation by a chief superintendent whose report was submitted on May 20th, 1996. The following day, May 21st, 1996, the Department of Justice was informed of the findings," the statement concluded.
The Sunday Independent story did not claim that the "factual situation" was established within days of the case collapsing on April 13th but said the Garda authorities had accepted they either lost or shredded the documentation at a very early stage and that, on April 15th, they notified the Department that they accepted full responsibility.
However, a spokeswoman for the Department last night said it was not made aware before May 21st that the Garda was accepting responsibility that it lost the original document.
Signalling that they would again pursue the matter "by whatever means possible" in the Dail this week, spokespersons for Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats last night repeated their contention that the Government must have known the fault lay with the Irish authorities.
Both parties are expected to focus on the Labour leadership's attitude to the handling of the affair by the Minister for Justice Mrs Owen, and the Attorney General's office.
Sources close to the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, refused to be drawn yesterday on his view of Mrs Owen's response but the Fianna Fail spokesman on law reform, Mr Willie O'Dea, said his party "will challenge Labour, who espoused such high standards in November 1994, whether they are prepared to stand over this vaudeville".
"The only thing we have heard from the Labour Party so far in this major controversy is a few off hand remarks from the self styled prince of probity, Mr Spring, on Morning Ireland on May 23rd when he nailed his colours firmly to the fence," Mr O'Dea said.
The leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, said the Government, to avoid political embarrassment, did not want the truth to come out. It would have been "covered up completely" but for Dail questions from her and her party colleague, Ms Liz O'Donnell.
Speaking on RTE's This Week, the Minister of State for Justice, Mr Austin Currie, indicated he was dissatisfied with the slow pace of the Garda inquiry into the lost warrant. He found it "unsatisfactory" that the Garda would claim the delay was due to "key" personnel being away.
Denying any attempt at a Government cover up, Mr Currie insisted the Opposition was engaged in "a pile of play acting", while the Taoiseach was involved for 80 per cent of his time in trying to make progress in the peace process. The controversy had not affected Anglo Irish relations and the British understood "that it was an innocent mistake".
The issue is expected to lead to further exchanges in the Dail.