Morris tribunal: The chairman of the Morris tribunal yesterday warned lawyers representing parties in the hearing that they should be mindful of the costs in summoning witnesses from Donegal.
Mr Justice Morris told Mr Paul Murray, for a key witness, Ms Adrienne McGlinchey, that he wanted to "put a marker down" regarding requests for unscheduled witnesses to appear before the tribunal.
"If their attendance is a waste of public money and they have no use that will be considered when costs come to be decided," he said.
He was also anxious to maintain momentum in the tribunal's hearings. He was responding to a request by Mr Murray that three Donegal gardaí, whose statements were read into the record yesterday, should appear to face cross-examination.
The statements of Sgt Michael Murphy, Garda John Murphy and Garda John Forkan all contained details related to Ms McGlinchey's alleged links to subversives.
The tribunal was told that when Ms McGlinchey was stopped and searched in Buncrana on May 28th, 1992, she was carrying a bag found to contain four walkie-talkies, two detachable roof aerials, two balaclavas, two green army-type jackets, a nine-volt torch, an assortment of electrical wire and an AC-DC converter.
Mr Justice Morris agreed the witnesses should appear because Ms McGlinchey's "status" was a key element of the current module of the tribunal.
Most of yesterday was given over to the evidence of Det Sgt Hugh Smith, a Donegal garda, who claims Ms McGlinchey supplied information on the IRA to himself and his partner, Det Garda Matt Tolan.
Det Sgt Smith told the tribunal that in October 1990 he and Det Garda Tolan stopped Ms McGlinchey in her car on the road to Rahan, outside Letterkenny. They found maps in the car of the Border area near Coshquin, Co Derry.
Later in October a 1,000lb IRA bomb exploded at a British army checkpoint in Coshquin, killing six soldiers and a civilian. The day the bomb exploded, Det Sgt Smith said, he met Ms McGlinchey in the street, and she insisted she did not know the maps related to the bomb attack.
Det Sgt Smith said he told her: "Don't worry about it" and to "keep walking".
Mr Murray, for Ms McGlinchey, put it to Det Sgt Smith that the meeting never happened. He said it would be "incredible" for a detective to tell somebody who had been in the possession of marked maps of Coshquin, just days before a bomb exploded there, to "not worry about it" on the day the bomb killed seven people.
Det Sgt Smith said he decided not to arrest her during the chance encounter because "I accepted . . . she was delivering [the maps\] from A to B, that she did not know the context, the significance of the marks on the maps we had taken from her.
"I felt she was more valuable to us if we could meet her and chat to her".
Det Sgt Smith said he had met Ms McGlinchey up to 30 times but conceded he could produce no notes of any meetings.
This was despite the fact Ms McGlinchey was allegedly informing on the IRA to him and his partner. He added that he was sure he took some notes but could not find them now, almost 13 years after the meetings.
He also disputed aspects of Garda Tolan's evidence, which was heard on Thursday.
He would not agree with the impression given to the tribunal that Ms McGlinchey regularly drank heavily.
Ms McGlinchey denies meeting the two detectives in the way they have described.
However, Det Sgt Smith was certain the meetings had taken place. "Why would I invent them? I have no axe to grind with Ms McGlinchey," he said.
