Fine Gael deputy leader Mrs Nora Owen has urged the Government to publish the opinion of the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, on freeing the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
Mrs Owen said yesterday that she wanted to know what advice was given before "unequivocal public statements were made" by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, that the men would not qualify for early release under the Belfast Agreement.
It was especially important that this information be revealed in view of the situation of another prisoner, Mr Henry Doherty, she said. Mr Doherty, who claims to be a founder of the INLA and is not a member of a group on ceasefire, has been granted leave to appeal to the High Court a decision by the Minister for Justice to refuse him early release under the agreement.
Unless the Government published the legal advice it received, its powers to decide who is and is not entitled to be released would continue to be challenged in the courts, she said.
"Publication of the Government's most senior legal opinion is now essential to allay public concern following reports in one weekend newspaper of the existence of an official Department of Justice memorandum of this April advising that the four who killed Garda McCabe do in fact qualify for early release under the Belfast Agreement."
She said that on at least three separate occasions the Government had given categorical assurances that the four men convicted of Det Garda McCabe's manslaughter in 1996 did not qualify for early release.
"Firstly, within days of the signing of the Good Friday agreement, the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, publicly stated that they would not qualify, a statement that was subsequently confirmed by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. Secondly, Mr O'Donoghue restated the Government's unequivocal position in a letter to the widow of the slain detective, Mrs Anne McCabe, in November 1999. Thirdly, in the last number of days, the Justice Minister and the Taoiseach have again reiterated an unchanged position on the Government's part," she said.
Mrs Owen said she assumed that all those statements were made with the clear advice of the Attorney General.
"However, against the backdrop of unrelenting claims by leading members of Sinn Fein that the McCabe killers do qualify under the agreement, and now the apparent revelation of supporting official advice to the Government in April of this year, the Government has no choice but to clear the air . . . by publishing the advice of the Cabinet's senior legal officer," she said.