The RTÉ radio producer who made the decision to name John Carthy during the Abbeylara siege four years ago has denied suggestions that he was trying spice up the story.
Niall O'Flynn repeated his claim that nobody in the village mentioned Mr Carthy's psychiatric illness to him.
He acknowledged to the Barr Tribunal that he had said in a statement to the inquiry that he read in the papers on the morning of the siege that Mr Carthy had been seeing a doctor.
However, Mr Flynn said it had never occurred to him at any stage that Mr Carthy was unwell and he could now recall only knowing that there was a doctor at the scene.
In response to cross-examination by counsel for the Garda Commissioner, Mr O'Flynn agreed that he would have expected to have been told by RTÉ News that they were not naming Mr Carthy during the siege.
However, he said he understood why he was not informed as it was not a particular issue or a big deal for the newsroom.
Mr O'Flynn confirmed to the tribunal that no other producer or editor listened to the interviews he carried out with Mr Carthy's neighbours in Abbeylara before they were broadcast.
When the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Barr, suggested to him that one of the interviews inferred that Mr Carthy had been drinking excessively, Mr O'Flynn said he took issue with the chairman's use of the word excessive and felt that the interview was much more light-hearted than that.
'If I was aware of the particular sensitivity surrounding Mr Carthy's relationship with his ex-girlfriend, I wouldn't have broadcast any reference to it,' Mr O'Flynn said. 'I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole,' he added.
