Government confident extradition crisis over

THE Government is confident that the controversy surrounding, the missing extradition warrant for Mr Anthony Duncan has fizzled out in the Dail after the Opposition failed to extract any new information on the affair.

However, Fianna Fail plans further questions to the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, specifically on whether her Department was informed two days after the case collapsed that blame for mislaying the original warrant lay with the Garda.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the Secretary of the Department of Justice, Mr Tim Dalton, consulted with officials over reports in the Sunday Independent that the Department knew on April 15th where responsibility lay. Government sources said that officials confirmed that no Garda report to this effect was made to the Department.

The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, yesterday strenuously denied Opposition suggestions that he had been involved in a cover up, describing such charges as "contemptible and untrue". Neither was there any concealment of information from the House by the Minister for Justice or the Attorney General, he said.

During Taoiseach's Question Time in the Dail, Fianna Fail pursued Mr Bruton on whether the Department of Justice received a Garda report accepting responsibility for mislaying the extradition documents shortly after the collapse of the application in the Dublin District Court.

He refused a request from the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, that all documentation and information on the case be laid before the House. It would not be appropriate "in the interest of the security of the State", he added.

Denying that the Department knew where culpability lay as early as April 15th, Mr Bruton insisted that "they did not establish where the fault lay until the report of 21st May". That was what the Garda, the Department and the Minister for Justice - as well as himself - had said and attempts by Fianna Fail to say they were all telling untruths was contemptible.

While he "regretted" the delay in the Garda investigation, it was "appropriate that the necessary degree of time should be taken to get the facts right because it affects the rights and positions of individuals in terms of their careers".