The hearing of evidence has concluded at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court, in the trial of five people charged with perverting the course of justice.
The alleged offences, by a retired Garda superintendent and four serving members of the force, occurred between October 2016 and September 2019.
The five accused are former Supt Eamon O'Neill; Sergeant Anne-Marie Hassett; Sergeant Michelle Leahy, Roxboro Road Garda Station; Garda Tom McGlinchey, Murroe Garda Station; and Garda Colm Geary, Ennis Garda Station.
Retired assistant Garda Commissioner, Fintan Fanning, concluded his evidence this afternoon, when he was cross-examined by Carl Hanahoe SC, for the State.
Over the course of a lengthy discussion, Mr Fanning was asked about 2014 policies in relation to the operation of the Fixed Charge Penalty Notice (FCPN) system.
A portion of the exchanges related to the manner in which penalty points could be cancelled and who had the authority to order such actions, after a central facility was established in Thurles, for the administration of fixed charge notices.
Mr Fanning was then shown text messages presented earlier in the trial, detailing correspondence between Mr O'Neill and others, in which there were discussions about how to avoid having penalties applied, for alleged speeding offences.
Mr Hanahoe put it to Mr Fanning that it was "plain as a pikestaff" in one text discussion, that Mr O’Neill was aware that the recipient of a FCPN had been driving at the time the alleged offence occurred.
While he agreed this was the case, Mr Fanning refused to be drawn as to whether he believed this amounted to the accused being aware that a false declaration would be made.
He said, in his experience, "you don’t investigate crime or discipline by way of text messages".
"I don’t know the context and I’m not going to speculate," he added.
He went on to say the messages "don’t read well" but cautioned that "you wouldn’t stick a couple of text messages together and say it all adds up".
Closing statements from legal representatives for both the defence and prosecution are expected to begin later this afternoon.
