Ahern unapologetic over on-the-runs issue

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has insisted he will "never apologise" for the approach he has taken in dealing with issues such as "on-the-runs" in his attempt to bring peace to the North.

He also told the Dáil that the Government was only told about the inclusion of British soldiers with the on-the-runs in Westminster legislation around the time of the bill's publication.

He disagreed with the decision, but "we do not write British legislation; we make an input to it".

In a staunch defence of his handling of controversial developments like the proposed presidential pardon for former paramilitaries who remain on the run, he told Labour leader Pat Rabbitte that "if we didn't deal with some of these issues there wasn't a hope in hell or a chance in a billion" of ever making progress.

In the face of persistent Opposition criticism of the presidential pardon, Mr Ahern said: "I don't like saying this so bluntly, but you decide which way you want it. You either deal with these hard issues, or we would have had the past. I opted - and I'll never apologise for it - I opted for this way."

There were a number of months to deal with the matter, but "if valid points are made I will certainly not rule them out in advance".

He was "almost certain that it was not just the late Jerry McCabe issue which decided this was the best legal way to go".

Mr Ahern also rejected Fine Gael allegations that the pardon was a "secret deal" done with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed that the proposed presidential pardons, which were "irreversible and irrevocable, were never mentioned after the Weston Park talks".

Mr Ahern said Mr Kenny had "decided to be in favour of the Good Friday agreement, but then oppose everything that comes out of it".

Mr Kenny said it was a year since the Government had done a "secret deal" with the IRA for the release of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe, and that the Taoiseach had done a deal for speaking rights for MPs in the Oireachtas.

Mr Ahern said: "I resent the deputy's continual accusation that these are part of some secret deal. Neither of those issues was part of any secret deal."

He said, however, that "there are quite a number of people who murdered gardaí".

"The families of those gardaí have had to go through the trauma associated with this, and they accepted we would release those prisoners in 1998 and 1999."

The issue of on-the-runs was part of discussions before Weston Park, and part of the Joint Declaration.

However "the legal basis was not worked out then".

Mr Kenny said that going down the presidential pardon route could well "result in an attempt being made to turn Áras an Uachtaráin into something akin to the court of Queen Elizabeth".

Mr Rabbitte said the Taoiseach did not appear to acknowledge the rising public concern about the issue, and the "succession of secret bilateral deals, details of which are still emerging".

He said the issue was "what kind of an amnesty does not require people to come forward and admit the offence of which they are seeking to be released".

It meant that "we are inviting people here to hide for as long as they can, but if at any stage indefinitely down the road, in 10 or 15 years' time, they are caught they will then have an insurance policy that they can resort to".

Mr Rabbitte added that "as a result of this side deal with Sinn Féin we now find that the arrangement covers members of the security forces who are guilty of dozens and dozens of murders in Northern Ireland".

They were not intended to be included in the arrangement, and were never referred to in the Good Friday agreement or at Weston Park. Mr Ahern said he disagreed with the inclusion of security forces in the amnesty, but said it was known since 2001 that the on-the-runs issue would have to be dealt with.