THE GARDA COMMISSIONER has said that investigators have “no leads” in their probe for what happened to missing Kerry farmer Michael Gaine. 

Speaking at the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors annual conference in Kerry today, Drew Harris said that he has received a two hour briefing in regard to progress in the investigation.

Harris also said that gardaí have not contacted any foreign police forces in their enquiries. 

Massive searches and forensic examinations have taken place as gardaí continue their search for the 56-year-old who was reported missing from his home near Molls Gap, Co. Kerry on Friday, 21 March.

He was last seen in Kenmare town, on Thursday 20 March, almost a month ago.

In response to a question on the progress of the probe he said: “No leads – well, we have certainly been given a lot of assistance and information from the public, but we have yet to find him.

“What one does is follow through with our inquiries to their conclusion, follow through with our searches to their conclusion so that we are absolutely certain that we have searched thoroughly, that we have gained all the information and evidence that we can.”

Yesterday Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said that he had received “no indication” from gardaí that Michael Gaine was murdered.  

Harris backed up that assessment and said that it “it remains a missing person investigation”.

“There is a huge amount of work in enquiries has undergone, both in terms of the physical searching operation, but also recovery of CCTV, recovery of dash cam footage, and also house to house inquiries, together with all the other inquiries one would make in terms of proof of life and trying to actually what happened between the 20th and 21st of March.

“We are still very much appealing for information,” he said. 

Harris said that the scale of the investigation is “huge” and that it was continuing. 

“That effort continues and it will be for the senior investigating officer to make further determinations into the future,” he added. 

In his comments the Commissioner criticised some inaccurate reporting around Michael Gaine’s movement  – he said this was not accurate and may have jeopardised people with information coming forward. 

“We’re very much still in the position of drawing in information. We’re still appealing from the information from the public as well,” he added. 

Since 1 April, further assistance has been provided by the Irish Defence Forces.

Defence Forces personnel were deployed to search the wooded and marsh areas and have utilised their experience across mountainous terrain, rugged landscape, and dense forest and undergrowth.

Gardaí have also deployed specialist members from the Water Unit, Divisional Search Teams and members undertaking investigative actions such as CCTV and dash-cam collection.

To date, gardaí have undertaken nearly 230 formal enquiries, taken nearly 100 witness statements and recovered around 1,500 hours of CCTV and dash-cam footage.