The Government has indicated that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is unlikely to meet the widow of the Det Garda Jerry McCabe until such time as the Provisional IRA formally offers to stop all criminal activity and complete the decommissioning of its arms.
With political talks to intensify this week, a spokeswoman for the Taoiseach said Mr Ahern will not meet Ms McCabe until such time as the release of her husband's killers can be considered in the context of an end to all IRA activity. There was no such offer on the table at present, he said.
The Garda Representative Association is to discuss the matter in Adare, Co Limerick today. The president of the GRA, Mr Dermot O'Donnell, said members of the force were angry that the Government was now willing to consider the release of the killers. Gardaí expected the Government to keep its commitments not to release the men, he said.
The PD founder and former minister for justice Mr Des O'Malley was quoted by the Sunday Independent as saying the release of Garda McCabe's killers would "appease terrorism".
The Minister for Defence, Mr O'Dea, promised Ms Ann McCabe in weekend conversations that he will relay her concerns about the possible release of his killers to Mr Ahern.
In addition, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, will attempt to renew contact this week with Ms McCabe, who is angry that the Government is prepared to release the four men convicted for killing her husband in 1996 in the context of comprehensive settlement in Northern Ireland.
The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, insisted again yesterday that the case was embraced in the Belfast Agreement. "The prisoners that were charged with his killing do come under the Good Friday Agreement . . . We also have taken issue with the Government over this issue. They should have been released with all of the other prisoners."
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, rejected Mr Adams' remarks on RTE and said Sinn Féin had distanced itself from the killing of Garda McCabe. "I don't want to see them go free. But if in the context of a total end to paramilitarism, if the IRA laid down all their arms, ends criminality, then, and only then, will we even consider the possibility that these people might be released."