THE Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, congratulated the Garda Commissioner and the gardai involved in the significant arms find in Co Laois, saying it was a further indication of the types of weapons the IRA has.
She also said the find strengthened the Government's determination to continue with the democratic process.
The leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, said the Co Laois find suggested that peace was far from the minds of those in the republican movement.
Renewing her call on the Government to cut formal links with Sinn Fein, Ms Harney said that, as democrats, it had a duty to distance itself from those who moved "between violence and peace when they see fit".
She said Sinn Fein was now on the brink of being banished to the political wilderness. "Gerry Adams's admission that some members of Sinn Fein do not agree with the peace strategy is evidence, if it were needed, that there are not two wings of the republican movement, just one organisation determined to turn on and off the tap of terror when it suits them," she said.
