Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris was condemned in the Seanad yesterday for refusing to encourage people to co-operate with the Garda inquiry into the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe.
In an interview on Radio Kerry, Mr Ferris said that he would not inform on any IRA members still at large, as he could not be disloyal to the organisation of which he had been a member. He added that he knew nothing of the killing.
The TDs comments were later raised in the Seanad with a number of senators expressing their revulsion at the views expressed by Mr Ferris.
Responding to the documentary, Jerry McCabe Murder on Main Street, shown on RTÉ on Tuesday night to mark the 10th anniversary of the atrocity, Mr Ferris said those convicted of killing Garda McCabe were IRA activists and not part of a criminal campaign. Asked if he would encourage people to come forward with information on anyone on the run and still wanted in connection with the killing, Mr Ferris said as far as he knew the suggestion there were others at large was media speculation.
Mr Ferris wanted to make it clear he knew nothing about the killing but in any case he would not inform. "I have been an IRA volunteer in my lifetime . . . I have been a victim of a person who informed on me. I would never betray that loyalty to an organisation that I was once belonged to," he said.
He maintained that it had been generally accepted that Garda McCabe's death was not deliberate, but "through human fallibility or whatever" had amounted to "somebody" firing into the car and killing him.
Later the issue was raised by Senator John Minihan of the Progressive Democrats who called on his colleagues to express their revulsion at the attitude being adopted by Mr Ferris.