The Disclosures Tribunal has heard that a witness from Tusla may have been trying to mislead the inquiry by saying she could not recall most of her dealings with the Sgt Maurice McCabe file.
Tusla social worker Eileen Argue was asked about evidence from an earlier witness that Ms Argue directed in April 2014 that there was a duty to notify an allegation made against Sgt McCabe to the gardaí.
The tribunal, chaired by Supreme Court Justice Peter Charleton, is examining allegations that senior gardaí were involved in a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe, among other issues.
SC Michael McDowell for Sgt McCabe suggested to Ms Argue that the real explanation for why she could not recall was that she wanted to avoid all personal involvement in the affair and wanted to produce a misleading statement.
Ms Argue said she did not accept that and she was not trying to mislead anyone.
She also said she could not recall asking her colleague, Laura Connolly, to open intake records on Sgt McCabe's four children.
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She said she doubted that she had asked Ms Connolly to include the two children who were then aged over 18, as that would have been against policy.
Mr McDowell said her direction was wildly irresponsible and wrong.
Ms Argue was also asked about an error she made when sending in the amended garda notification. She left in a line saying the alleged perpetrator threatened the complainant's father but that was incorrect.
SC Patrick Marrinan for the Tribunal suggested to her that the correction was sloppy.
He also said that despite a lengthy interview Ms Argue had with investigators, she had virtually no independent recollection.
Ms Argue said she could not remember anything independent from the Tribunal's review of the file and the discussions had not triggered or prompted anything.
She was also asked why she looked at the file on 30 April 2014.
She said she could not recall but it would have related to the system for measuring pressure on unallocated files.
Social worker was sent version of file with elements missing
A regional social worker with Tusla who reviewed the Sgt McCabe file has said she was horrified when she realised the errors made.
She also told the Disclosures Tribunal she was sent a sanitised version of the file with key elements missing.
Clair Tobin works with Tusla's Sexual Abuse Regional Team.
She was assigned the file in August 2016 in order to assist the agency's legal team in responding to Sgt McCabe's solicitors request for information on how the error happened.
She told the tribunal she was horrified with how the case was managed.
Ms Tobin said a garda notification should not have been sent before contacting Sgt McCabe and she concluded that Sgt McCabe had not been afforded fair procedures.
Following her review, Tusla wrote to Sgt McCabe telling him the case was closed and there were no outstanding allegations.
The tribunal also heard that some information was missing from the file when it was forwarded to Ms Tobin.
Mr Justice Charleton asked her if she thought she was sent a sanitised version of the file without all warts and defects and she agreed.
He also asked whether she thought there was a cover-up or an intention to circle the wagons and she said she did not know but it was really poor management.
SC Michael McDowell asked her if she was more horrified and concerned on hearing that information was missing. She said she was.
Ms Tobin also said the case should have been reviewed by someone more senior than her.
The tribunal heard that a senior manager is now carrying out a review.
Another witness, Linda Creamer, a Service Director with Tusla, said she did not think there was anything sinister in elements being missing from the file, she said it was just incompetence.
She said the evidence about Tusla's handling [of the case] was shameful.
Ms Creamer said she did not know about the full extent of the mistakes made until the RTÉ Prime Time programme in February of this year.
She said Tusla was genuinely extremely sorry for what happened to the McCabe family.
She said it was completely unacceptable and added that Tusla was in the middle of a major transition programme.
