A 'significant amount' of records have gone missing from Dundalk Garda Station, the Smithwick Tribunal has been told.
It had emerged during evidence today that the Station Diary and telephone records from around the time the tribunal is examining had disappeared.
Michael Durack senior counsel for the Garda Commissioner told Judge Smithwick that ‘a significant amount of documents are missing from that time period' and that a list of missing records is being prepared and will be submitted to the Tribunal.
The tribunal is investigating claims that a garda colluded with the IRA in the murder of two senior RUC men, Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan.
They died in an IRA ambush on 20 March 1989, minutes after leaving Dundalk Garda Station.
It was claimed this afternoon that senior gardaí and the RUC had concerns about former Detective Sgt Owen Corrigan and that he was involved in smuggling and ‘in cahoots’ with the IRA.
Retired Garda Superintendent Tom Connolly had told the tribunal at an earlier hearing there were concerns about a garda but he was asked then not to name him.
Today in the tribunal he said he didn't hear counsel telling him to not to identify the person in question before he named Owen Corrigan.
Although he said he could not remember who told him, when or where he was told about these concerns, the witness was adamant that he was informed.
He insisted many other gardaí were aware of this too.
Former Supt Connelly acknowledged that he did nothing to investigate the claims against Mr Corrigan while he was in Dundalk.
After naming Mr Corrigan, counsel for the former Detective Sergeant intervened and said his client was not supposed to be named.
He accused the witness of deliberately and maliciously putting Mr. Corrigan's name out into the public domain, a claim for former Superintendent rejected.
Under cross examination, the witness acknowledged that he never had any evidence whatsoever against Mr Corrigan only what he had been told.
The tribunal also heard that the Chief State Solicitor's office wrote to the retired superintendent in April of this year in relation to statements he had made to the Tribunal but details of the letter were not read out.
