The Government is to press ahead with the early release of republican prisoners serving sentences for capital murder despite objections from the Garda Representative Association (GRA).
Four of eight men convicted of the murder of gardai are due for release in less than two years under the Belfast Agreement. The four, all members of the Provisional IRA, were convicted of the separate murders of Garda Sgt Seamus Quaid in 1980 and Det Garda Frank Hand in 1984.
The remaining four prisoners, convicted of the murders of three gardai, belong to fringe republican groups and may qualify for early release if their groups declare a ceasefire. Two men were convicted in 1980 for the murder of Det Garda John Morley and Garda Henry Byrne after a robbery in Co Roscommon. The other two are serving 40-year sentences for the murder of Sgt Patrick Morrissey in Tallanstown, Co Louth, in 1985.
However, the Government is said to be determined that persons found guilty of the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare, Co Limerick, will not be regarded as "qualifying prisoners" under the Criminal Justice (Release of Prisoners) Act, because the offence took place during the first IRA ceasefire in 1996.
Both the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, are understood to have made this clear to Sinn Fein in a series of contacts leading up to the Belfast Agreement.
A spokesman for the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said they would repeat their policy of opposition to the release of anybody convicted of the murder of a garda.
The GRA president, Mr John Healy, said the association was "seeking an urgent meeting" with Mr O'Donoghue. "When the death penalty was abolished we were given a firm commitment that it was to be replaced by a 40year sentence. We have a legitimate concern that the murder of guards should not become an ordinary everyday crime.
"It seems that the mandatory 40-year sentence is only mandatory until some political decision is taken. If the political landscape changes does that mean that someone convicted for the murder of a guard tomorrow will qualify for early release at some time in the future?"
Asked about the GRA position on the man charged with the murder in December 1983 of trainee garda Gary Sheehan during the rescue of Mr Don Tidey, Mr Healy said it would be wrong to comment publicly on a case going through the courts.
The chairman of Sinn Fein, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, described the issue of the suspects in the murder of Det Garda McCabe as a particularly delicate matter yesterday because a number of people had yet to come before the courts and nobody had been convicted.
Mr McLaughlin did not see "any benefit in speculating about the outcome of the trial" and urged that the terms of prisoner releases, as outlined in the Belfast Agreement, be fully implemented. Such a course of action might, he said, provide solutions to future problems.
He described comments by Dr Philip McGarry of the Alliance Party, on the need for the equal treatment of paramilitary prisoners who had killed policemen North and South, as mischievous.
The position of the GRA had been consistent, Mr McLaughlin said, and while he acknowledged the hurt and trauma that had been caused by the deaths of Garda members, the Belfast Agreement was there and Sinn Fein wished to see it fully implemented.
A suggestion by the vice-president of the GRA, Mr Michael Kirby, that the Government had failed since last April to respond to its representations in this matter was denied by a spokesman for the Department of Justice yesterday.