Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The leadership of the Sinn Féin Party has argued vociferously since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement that the McCabe murderers should be let out under that Agreement. We have gone all the way to the Supreme Court to reject that. There were many attempts for us to come to an arrangement regarding this matter. I have explained to the House previously that the Government was once prepared to make such an agreement. There was no secret deal involved. Many prisoners have been moved out of the prison in Portlaoise over the years and in this case a number of prisoners were moved as well. When all the other prisoners were released in 1998 and 1999, the McCabe killers were the only remaining prisoners in this category held in the jurisdiction. Everybody else had been released. There might have been some INLA prisoners.

Quite frankly, we have moved to a position in which the McCabe killers are not being released. Any argument regarding where they are is a matter for the governor of the prison. The GRA never once raised this issue with me on the occasions on which it met me.

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