The Government is expected to broach one of the most sensitive issues relating to the release of IRA prisoners this week with an announcement about the freeing of four IRA prisoners in Portlaoise Prison for the murders of two gardai shot in separate incidents in the early 1980s.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, wrote to the families of Det Garda Seamus Quaid and Garda Frank Hand last week informing them of the imminent decision from the Independent Commission set up to review prison releases under the terms of the agreement.
It is expected the commission will give its decision on the four to the Minister for Justice early this week and the men may be free for Christmas. The four were sentenced to serve 40 years minimum.
Three of them, Thomas Eccles, Patrick McPhillips and Brian McShane, were actually sentenced to death for the murder in August 1984 of Garda Frank Hand (27) during an IRA robbery of the post office in Drumree, Co Meath.
Garda Hand, a member of the Serious Crime Squad, had been married only weeks earlier. Eccles, McPhillips and McShane's sentences were commuted to a minimum 40-year term.
The fourth prisoner is Peter Rogers, originally from west Belfast, who was also sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment in 1981 for the murder of Garda James Quaid (42), who was shot dead when he stopped a van containing IRA explosives at Ballyconnick, Co Wexford, in October 1980.
Relatives of both gardai have objected to the inclusion of the four prisoners in the early release programme.
Yesterday the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), repeated its opposition to the early release of people convicted of killing gardai. A spokesman said: "Our policy is that anyone convicted of the murder of gardai should serve their full sentence in the interests of the future of members of what is an unarmed force. It is one of the protections of our proud tradition as an unarmed force."
Rogers, Eccles, McPhillips and McShane are now expected to leave Portlaoise, at least for parole, later this week, along with the 24 long-term prisoners who have been transferred from jails in England over the past year and are also due for release under the agreement's terms.
The transferred prisoners include the longest-serving IRA prisoners - the four members of the "Balcombe Street Gang", who have all completed nearly 25 years in prison.
It is expected the four IRA prisoners who were transferred from English jails to Portlaoise last Thursday will also receive parole but may not be given final release dates until early next year.
This Christmas Portlaoise will have its lowest number of paramilitary prisoners since this category of prisoner was transferred there in the early 1970s. It is likely that with the exception of a small number of remand prisoners and a group of about 16 non-aligned republicans, the prison's "political" wings will be largely empty.
One republican prisoner remains in England. He is Jan Taylor, a member of a radical leftwing group. He assisted the IRA in its bombing campaign in England in the early 1990s. He was sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment and chose not to be transferred to Portlaoise as an appeal in his case is due in the High Court in London in the New Year.
There are only 90 IRA prisoners still in the Maze and at least 70 of these are expected to receive Christmas parole, with final release dates coming soon after in 1999.
Some 20 IRA Maze prisoners, it is understood, have been told they do not qualify for Christmas parole and there is confusion about whether or not they will be let out for Christmas. All of these 20 prisoners will be freed, at the latest, by the end of next summer.
Only one Provisional IRA woman prisoner remains in Maghaberry Prison. It is expected she too will receive Christmas parole and also be freed in 1999.
The loyalist wings of the Maze will also be virtually empty this Christmas with only a few dozen prisoners expected to return in the New Year to complete sentences.
It is also expected the remaining INLA and LVF prisoners will begin to benefit from the release schemes from next year. Most of the nine INLA prisoners in Portlaoise may receive Christmas parole.