Ahern rejects claim garda killers were within hours of release

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday rejected an assertion by Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris that the Government came “within an hour” of releasing the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe.

Mr Ahern agreed that the release of the killers would have formed part of the sequencing if an agreement had been reached between the two Governments, Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party in Hillsborough Castle in October 2003.

“If we got a comprehensive agreement,” Mr Ahern said yesterday, “(the Minister for Justice) would have gone to the McCabe family, as we had set out in the Dáil. That did not happen.”

Later, the Government spokesperson added that the process of consulting with the McCabe family before sanctioning the early release of the four killers would have taken some time.

In the event, the negotiations failed when the UUP refused to issue its agreed statement after Gen John de Chastelain issued a report on decommissioning that David Trimble regarded as unsatisfactory.

Mr Ahern was responding to comments made by the Kerry North SF deputy on RTÉ radio yesterday, when he again insisted that the four IRA men were qualifying prisoners under the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Ahern repeated his view of the irrelevance of the disclosure by the men, that they didn’t want their release to form part of future negotiations. “I made it very clear that this issue was off the table,” he said.

“We went all the way to the Supreme Court to vindicate the right of the Minister for Justice to make a determination on who were eligible prisoners.”

Mr Ahern said it was “always good to have people show remorse” even if it was years after the murder.

In comments directed towards Ann McCabe, he said: “We have all, including myself, put the McCabe family through some difficult times and I myself have said that I regret that.”

Mr Ahern said the peace process was going through a particularly difficult period but stressed that he still firmly believed in an inclusive process.

He said that view had been backed up by SDLP leader Mark Durkan whom he met in Dublin yesterday.

Mr Durkan reiterated he had always argued that “no shabby side deal should be done for the killers.

“We were also astounded that Sinn Fein made this of all issues the deal-breaker in last year’s negotiations.

“The fact that the killers now admit they should not be part of a side deal goes to show that decent standards are starting to prevail and justice for victims cannot be ignored. This is what Ann McCabe wanted to see when I met her last week.”