Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny said the release of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe would completely undermine the integrity and authority of the office of Taoiseach.
He said the release would prove categorically that the Government was incapable of upholding the rule of law or of distinguishing between right and wrong. Its solemn commitments not to release the killers should not be overturned by the IRA Army Council, Mr Kenny said. He asked how the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, could look any Garda recruit in the eye and say "this Government will stand by you as you put your life on the line for us". He said Garda McCabe's killers were not freedom fighters, but thugs and bank robbers "who murdered Jerry McCabe in cold blood".
