Tribunal already knew identity of Howlin's source
The TD confirmed Dublin lawyer Martin Giblin was the mystery source for information which led to the establishment of the probe.
The former Labour deputy leader and Health Minister said Mr Giblin had now released him from his pledge to uphold his anonymity, and was baffled as to why the tribunal had pursued him to the Supreme Court over the matter.
Mr Giblin has represented the McBrearty family since Frank McBrearty Jnr and his cousin Mark McConnell were wrongly arrested and falsely identified as the main suspects in the so-called "murder" of cattle dealer Richie Barron
Mr Howlin expressed anger at the expensive and relentless court action taken by the Morris Tribunal.
"Mr Giblin contacted the tribunal some time ago and identified himself as the source. He has had contacts with the tribunal and the Garda Siochána since then.
"I do not know why the Morris Tribunal pursued me in this way. It is a very good question and one I do not know the answer to.
"I would have thought there would need to be a highly compelling issue to seek to undo a very important principle of confidentiality like this.
"It is a fair question to ask why they went to this expense and also took up the time of the Oireachtas, which considered the matter, and also put conflict between the pillars of our democracy in this way," Mr Howlin said.
He added that he had heard of Mr Giblin's approach to the tribunal through a third party as, until last night, he had not had personal contact with the man since the formal proceedings of the inquiry began.
"He is very calm and robust and looking forward to giving detailed evidence to the inquiry.
"I am relieved this is now in the open, but I still believe there is a big issue here which has to be resolved.
"People must be able to feel they can approach TDs with information about wrongdoing and do that in a confidential way," he said.
It is believed Mr Giblin, at present on holiday in Poland, first contacted the tribunal more than two years ago.
Despite this, the tribunal pursued Mr Howlin through the courts to force him to reveal who tipped him off about corruption in Donegal in 2000 which in turn led to the creation of the inquiry itself.
The Supreme Court ruled last month that Mr Howlin was not entitled to protect the identity of his source.
The court insisted Mr Howlin could no longer withhold his phone records for the day he had told the inquiry the whistleblower had contacted him in June 2000.
Similar allegations were also made that month to Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins, who was a TD at the time.
The information received related to the behaviour of two senior gardaí in the Donegal division.
The two TDs passed this onto the Minister for Justice.
The Morris Tribunal ordered them to identify their sources in February 2003.
Mr Higgins later received a waiver from his source, Frank McBrearty Snr, to allow identification.
Mr Howlin was not protected by Dáil privilege in the matter as he passed the information directly to the Minister for Justice and did not announce it on the floor of the Oireachtas.
Martin Giblin was called to the bar in 1974 and made a senior counsel in 1996.
Based in Dublin, he led the negotiations in the €1.5 million settlement of Frank McBrearty Jnr's High Court case against the State last September.
He is an authority on criminal law.
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