The new life for Jonathan Dowdall will cost Irish taxpayers just €100,000 – and he’ll have to stand on his own feet after a few months, it has emerged.
A day after the bombshell news emerged that the former Sinn Fein councillor is to give evidence in the murder trial of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, sources have confirmed to Dublin Live it is unlikely the State will buy him a new home. Instead, the sources – who have an in-depth knowledge of the Witness Security Programme that Dowdall, 44, is being assessed for – revealed that it is more likely the State will rent him a property for a few months.
He will have to give up his life and start again abroad after he dramatically agreed to make a statement to gardai investigating the February 2016 murder of Daniel Kinahan associate David Byrne in the notorious attack at Dublin’s Regency Hotel.
