Dublin reaction: The Government has suspended its plan to give presidential pardons to those "on the run" in relation to paramilitary offences and will not "rush" to return to the issue, according to Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.
The Government swiftly announced yesterday that it was putting into abeyance the controversial plan to give pardons to paramilitaries on the run.
Mr Ahern said the matter was now "on the back burner".
The Government announcement came immediately after Northern Secretary Peter Hain told the House of Commons that he was abandoning legislation in the UK that would have freed around 60 "on-the-run" paramilitaries under licence.
"The British have succeeded in uniting everybody against their particular proposals," Dermot Ahern said yesterday.
"It was just politically not feasible for them to proceed."
While yesterday's events mean the issue remains unresolved, the abandonment of the plans will come as a relief to the Government, which had been criticised over the idea that the President would pardon people wanted for very serious offences without their ever having to face a court or admit guilt.
A Government spokeswoman said yesterday that the proposals for dealing with "on-the-runs" in the Republic were now "in abeyance pending the issue being revisited in both jurisdictions". She said the Government's plan to give presidential pardons was always intended to "operate in tandem with the operation of the provisions in the UK".
She said the British government had told Dublin in advance that the Northern Secretary would be making his announcement in the House of Commons yesterday. Mr Ahern said that the legislation that had been produced by the British government last November was not what the Government has expected.
In 2003, he told RTÉ's Five Seven Live programme, the two governments had agreed to deal with the outstanding issues in relation to the Good Friday agreement, and the issue of "on-the- runs" was one of these.
"We had little or no input in relation to what the British brought forward."
The Government had received very late notice that the British scheme was to deal not only with paramilitary "on-the-runs" but also with members of the British security forces.
"We immediately raised the inclusion of that with the British because that had not been part of our understanding of what they were proposing to do relative to their jurisdiction".
The Government had seen it as a problem. The Government would have preferred if the British security forces were not covered by the legislation. "When the legislation came out we indicated immediately to the British that we had some difficulties in relation to this."
He said the Irish and British governments would now reflect on how to proceed, but he did not know what the time scale would be.
"We don't know . . . we won't be rushing back to revisit the issue. It's on the back burner, and if there is to be any future consideration, one thing we would have to learn from the debate that has taken place over the last while is there will have to be input from victims groups."
The Labour Party leader, Pat Rabbitte, last night called on the Irish and British governments to talk to all political parties in the North about how to deal with the issue.
"The rights of victims and their families must be to the fore, rather than the selfish interests of governments and particular parties who want to cover up their crimes of the past," he said.