Ahern specifies 'only way' McCabe killers may be freed

The Government will not consider releasing the four prisoners who killed a Detective Garda until there is an end to all paramilitary activity, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today.

He said there was no question of the Government making a deal, as has been alleged, to release the killers as part of an attempt to restart the peace process, without consulting Det Garda Jerry McCabe’s family.

“If I gave the impression that this was part of the settlement, to release the gang, it would only be at the end of paramilitarism, at the ending of conflict,” he told the Dáil.

“The Government can consider the early release of these prisoners only with the achievement of all other acts of completion as were assured.

“This means assurance of the complete ending of paramilitarism by the IRA and decommissioning.

“If we ever want to get the end of the IRA then we’re going to have to be brave and take some pain and we’re going to have to get some gain.”

He said the issue of the release of the men from Castlerea Prison was not part of the Good Friday Agreement.

“Our goal last Spring was to clear the way on all outstanding issues, including the Republican movement, finally and definitively making a historic move away from violence.

“We did not achieve the outcome we were working to achieve at that time and because of this the question of the release of these prisoners … could not be pursued,” he said.

In February 1999, the Special Criminal Court handed down sentences ranging from 11 to 14 years to the four-man gang who shot Det Garda McCabe during an attempted post office robbery in the Limerick village of Adair in June 1996.

On the day of the sentencing, Mr Ahern pledged the four men would not get early release under the Good Friday Agreement.