Ahern denies McCabe killers release agreed in 1998

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today denied that he agreed to release the killers of Garda Gerry McCabe under the Belfast Agreement in a meeting with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams in 1998.

In the Dail this afternoon Mr Ahern strongly refuted Mr Adams's claims saying that the Sinn Fein president was under an "enormous misapprehension".

"The government made it clear at the time of the Good Friday Agreement that the release of the McCabe killers was not covered by the agreement, and I said so, and said so several times," insisted the Taoiseach.

"The fact is that the McCabe killers were convicted in February 1999.  We were discussing where we were in April 1998 so whatever discussions we had they certainly were not at that position".

However, whereas Mr Adams agrees that the private meeting took place before sentencing, he insists that they agreed all IRA prisoners, including Garda McCabe's killers, would have to be released under the terms of the Agreement.

At a news conference this morning Mr Adams said: "Myself and the Taoiseach dealt with this issue, one to one, and there is no question of anybody else being able to say anything on this issue other than me and the Taoiseach".

Mr Adams said the fact that the two were on remand at the time was redundant under the terms of the agreement.

"We were negotiating a hugely difficult deal for Irish Republicans," said Mr Adams. "There is no way that the management of Sinn Fein was going to leave those negotiations without being assured that everybody who should have been released, as part of that agreement, were going to be released".

"I made it very, very clear that they would have to be released if they were sentenced, and I left the Taoiseach, in my view, that that was his understanding also," said Mr Adams.