THE TWO politicians who campaigned for a public inquiry into the activities of members of the Garda Síochána in Donegal have rejected criticisms of them made by the Morris tribunal.
In its eighth and final report, the tribunal calls on the Oireachtas Committee of Practice and Procedure to review the manner in which members deal with allegations brought to their attention by "whistleblowers".
It says the damage that can be done to people's reputations by those peddling false stories about them to TDs "can be quite devastating to them", and calls on the Oireachtas to ensure there is a balance between the rights of people to bring matters to the attention of their public representatives, and the rights of those subject to false allegations.
They were referring to a false allegation that two Garda assistant commissioners, Kevin Carty and Tony Hickey, were involved with Det Sgt John White in the fabrication of evidence.
The allegation was brought to the attention of Fine Gael's Jim Higgins and Labour's Brendan Howlin and conveyed by them to the then minister for justice John O'Donoghue.
Both politicians rejected the criticism and stressed that without their bringing their concerns about the behaviour of gardaí in Donegal to the attention of Mr O'Donoghue, there would not have been a tribunal, which revealed a catalogue of abuses perpetrated by members of the force.
"The fact is that were it not for the action taken by myself and the then deputy Jim Higgins, the Morris tribunal would never have been established and the shocking saga of corruption, abuse and mismanagement that we now know about would never have been uncovered and would, in all probability, still be going on," Mr Howlin said in a statement.
"Among the abuses identified in earlier reports were perjury, insubordination, a total breakdown of discipline and attempts to use Garda informants to secure the conviction of persons for crimes of which they were totally innocent."
Mr Higgins also rejected the criticism, stating that the proper course of action was to bring the material privately to the attention of the then minister.
"There is a historic precedence for this in that in the lead-up to the 1970 arms crisis, the then leader of the opposition, Liam Cosgrave, went on a one-to-one to the then taoiseach Jack Lynch," he said.
The tribunal was critical of the two TDs for not examining more closely the allegation contained in documents received by them, though it acknowledged they had acted in good faith.
The tribunal also published its seventh report yesterday, into alleged harassment of the McBrearty family, and the investigation of their complaints by the now defunct Garda Complaints Board.
It concluded that the McBrearty family and their associates were subject to Garda harassment after the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in Raphoe, Co Donegal, in October 1996.
It found the board "was particularly limited in its investigatory powers" and could not cope with the enormity of the complaints made by the McBrearty family. While its staff could not be accused of shortcomings, the board was not designed to handle anything other than minor complaints.