THE latest report from the Morris tribunal, due to be published next week, is expected to exonerate two gardai, Tony Hickey and Kevin Carty, who were accused of corruption.

The two, a retired and a serving assistant commissioner respectively, were investigated after Jim Higgins, a Fine Gael MEP, and Brendan Howlin, a Labour deputy, claimed they had confidential information that the officers were corrupt and had colluded in fitting up suspects.

The Morris tribunal has concluded that the allegations were bogus, and an attempt to undermine an internal garda inquiry into garda corruption in Donegal. Howlin’s source was eventually identified as Martin Giblin, a senior barrister, who is not suspected of being the author of the false claims and reported them in good faith.

Higgins’s source was Frank McBrearty Snr, a publican from Raphoe, whose son Frank was framed for the murder of a cattle-dealer, Richie Barron. McBrearty said he received a copy of what appeared to be a garda memo outlining the corruption claims in the post from an anonymous source. The document claimed that Carty and Hickey used John White, a detective from Donegal who was implicated in corrupt practices, to plant evidence.

The tribunal report on the allegations against Hickey and Carty is the final in a series by Frederick Morris, a retired judge appointed more than six years ago to investigate garda corruption in Donegal.

Fachtna Murphy, the garda commissioner, is also thought to have escaped criticism.

Murphy was called as a tribunal witness because he transferred White after he had been arrested for corruption. He testified that this was a straightforward matter, which he oversaw as assistant commissioner in charge of human resources. The tribunal is said to have accepted his story.

A separate Morris tribunal report, also due for publication, covers allegations that McBrearty Snr and his family suffered garda harassment. The force is expected to be criticised for its handling of complaints made by McBrearty and his family over a four-year period.

Howlin said yesterday that he acted in a proper manner in dealing with the anonymous allegations. “I brought them to the attention of the justice minister at the time and didn’t make any public comment about it,” he said.

Higgins said: “We passed the information to the government and said we could not ascertain whether it was correct or not. We had no choice but to do what we did.”

Carty and Hickey are said to have been deeply angered by the politicians’ handling of the allegations. In a statement to the tribunal, Carty accused Higgins and Howlin of abusing their parliamentary privilege to destroy his reputation.

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