SEANAD REPORT:THE REAL IRA and the Continuity IRA could be shut down in the Republic, Eoghan Harris (Ind) said.

The Garda knew the names of those active in the groups; there were only 100 of them.

The State had enormous emergency powers. These could be used to prevent those intent on murder getting to Northern Ireland, thereby enabling the security services in the North to look after the security situation there.

Mr Harris claimed that there was an element of posturing in some of the expressions of condemnation of the killings.

He would ask those Senators to stop posturing and join with him in calling on Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to do what could be done to prevent such murderous activities.

Seanad leader Donie Cassidy undertook to pass on Mr Harris’s suggestions to the Minister for Justice immediately.

David Norris (Ind) called on Mr Harris to withdraw his claim of posturing. Mr Norris said the stupidity of the gangsters who had killed the security force personnel was shown by the fact that their actions were completely counterproductive.

Eugene Regan (Fine Gael) said that when one thought about the victims of these murders it brought home the misery that had been created for their families.

“My own grandfather was an RIC sergeant who was shot in an ambush at Tourmakeady in 1922,” he said

“I know from my own experience the effect that that had on my father, and it goes down through the generations,” he added.

There was some cause for concern over the large number of complaints that had been deemed inadmissible by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, Ivana Bacik (Ind) said.

The motion to approve the appointment of Dermot Gallagher as chairman of the commission was approved without a vote.

Minister of State for Justice Conor Lenihan described Mr Gallagher as one of this country’s most distinguished public servants.