A leading member of the Real IRA has denied receiving a tip-off from a member of the Garda Síochana ahead of a planned search of his home.
Michael McKevitt was questioned as part of the Smithwick Inquiry into the murders of two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary officers by the IRA on the South Armagh border on March 20, 1989.
The tribunal is investigating claims of collusion between the Provisional IRA and members of the garda in the murders of the two RUC men near Jonesborough.
Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan were traveling back North after a meeting with senior gardaí in Dundalk.
McKevitt, who was driven from prison where he is serving a sentence for directing terrorism, told the tribunal that he "had never got a tip-off from anyone."
The tribunal had previously been told that McKevitt was warned about a garda search of premises he owned in County Louth.
The warrant for the search had been issued late at night and the person who tipped off McKevitt allegedly told him: "You are going to have visitors, get rid of the package."
However, McKevitt denied this, or any other tip-off from a member of the garda, had ever happened.
He also denied having "friendly contact" with any officer.
There have been allegations that the IRA were tipped off about the route the two senior RUC men had planned to take by a member of the gardaí.
Counsel for the tribunal asked McKevitt that if he had (a tip-off), "would you tell me?"
McKevitt replied: "Here, under oath, I would probably have to."
McKevitt was the Provisional IRA's quartermaster until the late 1990s. He split from the IRA when it decided to call its ceasefire.
He was among a group of dissident republicans who were found liable for the Omagh bombing in 1998 when 29 people, as well as two unborn twins, were killed.
