McCabe killers - Honesty is the best policy

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern insisted yesterday that the Government was contemplating the release of the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe only in the context of the acceptance by the IRA of total arms decommissioning and an end to all forms of paramilitarism.

This would seem to run counter to repeated assurances that the killers would not be released early.

During the referendum campaign on the Good Friday Agreement, government ministers repeatedly stated that the terms of the agreement did not apply to the McCabe killers. Subsequent events would seem to confirm the Government’s stance, because all of the prisoners to whom the agreement did apply have already been released.