The Minister of State for Justice, Mr Willie O'Dea, has added to the controversy over the release of Pearse McAuley to marry Sinn Féin councillor Ms Pauline Tully.
Mr O'Dea, a TD for Limerick East, said yesterday: "I am very unhappy over what has happened." He said it came to him as a "bolt out of the blue".
He would be putting his views strongly to the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and the Government next week. "If it were my choice, the killers of Det Garda McCabe would spend every second of their prison sentences behind bars," he said.
The Shannon-based president of the Garda Representative Association, Garda Michael Kirby, welcoming Mr O'Dea's remarks, said: "These releases have all been too frequent. They are offensive to Garda McCabe's family and to his colleagues."
Det Garda McCabe's widow, Ann, has spoken of the family's hurt at the release.
Ms Tully is reported as saying they did not want a widely publicised wedding.
A Department of Justice spokesman said the release was taken on "purely compassionate grounds" and did not signal any change of policy.
McAuley, from Strabane, Co Tyrone, is serving a 14- year sentence for the manslaughter of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare, Co Limerick, in June 1996. Three Co Limerick men - Jeremiah Sheehy from Rathkeale, and Michael O'Neill and Kevin Walsh from Patrickswell - were also convicted.