THE House strongly condemned the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe and the wounding of Det Garda Ben O'Sullivan.

The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, on behalf of the Government, warned that there would be no progress towards peace if "we have to have the back up of an armed paramilitary force that is lurking in the shadows in the event that the process of democratic argument does not succeed in convincing one's opponents on how best to share this island".

He said the two gardai were engaged in normal duty, which was taken for granted. They were protecting taxpayers' money which was being transported through Limerick to be distributed as social welfare payments to thousands of people.

"They were shot in the course of duty, a duty that gardai undertake every day throughout this island. We have taken it for granted in the past and the brutal murder should bring it home to us now just how perilous their job will remain so long as this ambivalence regarding violence prevails on this island.

"And, therefore, there can be no soft place, no hiding place, no cosy corner for the ambivalence which has encouraged this kind of activity."

The presence of the President, Taoiseach and Tanaiste at Det Garda McCabe's funeral reinforced the Republic's repugnance at the use of violence to advance any political aim or ideal, no matter how sincerely held or pungently argued, Mr Quinn said.

"There is only one road to the future for all of the peoples of the island and that is the road of peace. And it is a road that is wide enough for every political strand, every political tradition to find space and accommodation as we travel together."

The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said he knew he spoke for everybody in the House when he condemned and deplored what had happened. "It is absolutely reprehensible."

Despite the denials, there was a strong prima facie case that what had happened was linked to the paramilitaries and any arguments about what was sanctioned or not were irrelevant as far as Fianna Fail was concerned. In condemning murder, the attitude had to be clear and unambiguous.

"It is not credible to claim to be totally committed to peaceful and democratic means on the one hand, while on the other hands members of an associated armed organisation reserve the right to engage in violence whenever it suits."

He believed that those engaged in the act, and those who represented them, owed something more than what he could do in a few moments in the House. "I think we all wait and wait, not for too long more, to see what the attitude is of those people who can do something about what happened last Friday morning.

The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, said there was no room for ambivalence. "Anybody who falls short of condemning what happened last Friday the murder of a garda and the serious injury of another cannot call themselves a democrat. One is either for violence or against it. There is no grey area in between."

Last weekend, she added, the leader of Sinn Fein had said he felt very cheated. "The people who can rightly feel cheated today are Anne McCabe and her family and his relatives, friends and colleagues. The people who can feel cheated, too, are the constitutional politicians in this country, in Britain and in the United States and everywhere else, who have gone out of their way to bring Sinn Fein into the democratic peaceful process.

"To the leadership of Sinn Fein, I have to say this it is time they made up their mind. People are fed up with the ambivalence that is coming from Sinn Fein. They now have an opportunity to either ensure the restoration of the IRA ceasefire, and, come into the democratic political process, and stop play acting and stop the political stunts we saw yesterday, or to be banished for all time into the political wilderness."

Ms Harney said what people wanted to hear from Sinn Fein was a condemnation of what had happened.