Prisoners in Portlaoise and in the Maze Prison belonging to the republican paramilitary group, the Irish National Liberation Army, are to be included in the post-ceasefires early releases.
The INLA prisoners in Portlaoise include Mr Sean Hughes, who is currently on remand awaiting trial accused of the murder of Garda Pat Reynolds, shot dead in February 1982 when he confronted armed robbers in Tallaght, Dublin.
It is expected Mr Hughes will remain in custody awaiting trial.
Mr Hughes fled the Republic several years ago and was imprisoned in France before returning to the Republic last year. He was overpowered and arrested by a garda during the attempted robbery of a bank in Co Mayo in October last year.
Also among the nine INLA prisoners at Portlaoise is Edward Hogan, who was part of the INLA gang which kidnapped the dentist Mr John O'Grady in 1988. The leader of that gang, Dessie O'Hare, is not part of the INLA group in Portlaoise but is a member of a "non-aligned" group of republican prisoners who will not be included in the early-release scheme. The "non-aligned" group includes prisoners serving sentences or on remand for offences related to the "Real IRA" group and the Continuity IRA.
The Department of Justice in Dublin last night confirmed the nine INLA prisoners held in Portlaoise Prison are to be included in the early-release scheme.
A similar announcement on the 27 INLA prisoners in the Maze Prison in the North is expected. The eight other INLA prisoners in the Maze are mainly serving sentences for firearms possession and robbery. Two men were due for release next year and are likely to be freed by Christmas.
The Maze group includes several men who are serving sentences for murder. Christopher McWilliams, the man who murdered the loyalist Billy Wright in the Maze Prison at the start of the year, sparking a round of sectarian murder in which 12 Catholics were killed, will be included among those eligible for early release.
Meanwhile, five Irish prisoners were transferred from British prisons to prisons in the Republic yesterday. The five - Patrick Kelly, Michael Gallagher, James Murphy, Jan Taylor and John Kinsella - were moved under the terms of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.