Smithwick must interview 115 witnesses

FURTHER pressure was put on Justice Minister Alan Shatter last night as Judge Smithwick warned his tribunal still needed to hear from 115 witnesses.

An interim report on the probe into the murders of two RUC officers shortly after they crossed the border after a meeting with Garda in Dundalk in 1989, also notes that evidence from Britain’s Ministry of Defence is awaiting assessment by the investigation’s legal team.

The interim collation of the probe’s inquiry, which was tasked in 2005 with investigating allegations of Garda collusion in the killings of officers Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Supt Robert Buchanan, states that the judge is in no position to give an end date for the inquiry.