The Garda Representative Association has expressed outrage at the "inadequate and lenient" sentences imposed on the men responsible for the manslaughter of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
Mr P.J. Stone, acting general secretary of the GRA, said the sentences did not reflect the severity of the crime committed by people who, by their own admission, had accepted their own culpability and guilt.
He said that gardai had already been incensed at the withdrawal of the capital murder charges.
The association called on the Taoiseach to unequivocally tell the Irish people, the Garda Siochana and the Dail that the terms of the Belfast Agreement do not apply to the sentences handed down yesterday.
"If this is the position, and the association demands that this should be so, then the Taoiseach must go further and advise Mr Martin McGuinness and Mr Gerry Adams and other spokespersons from Sinn Fein that the statements which they are making on our national airwaves, suggesting that the terms do apply, are both inaccurate and misleading."
The Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Mr Jim Higgins TD, said: "The sentences are totally inadequate given the callous manner in which Garda McCabe was gunned down." He said he would be demanding a full debate on the matter in the Dail next week.
The leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said many serious questions about the circumstances of the case remained unanswered, particularly with regard to what steps had been taken to provide protection for witnesses against intimidation.
Mr Des O'Malley TD said there were no circumstances in which the four convicted men should be allowed to benefit from the Belfast Agreement's early-release programme. "These men must serve their time for the despicable crime they have committed", he said.