Republican prisoners in Castlerea prison, Co Roscommon, are not in "some kind of a holiday camp", the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has insisted.

He also rejected claims by Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, that the men convicted in relation to the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe were allowed to send out for Chinese "or any other" take-aways.

Mr Shatter claimed during Justice Questions yesterday there was a "widespread perception that those found guilty of the killing of Garda McCabe are having a particularly easy time of life in one of the more luxurious prison institutions".

He said there were indications that their claims for temporary releases were "fraudulent" and he added that they were "free to run their own personal life in that institution".

Mr O'Donoghue rejected the claims and said "some of the descriptions of the accommodation give a misleading impression of luxury and tend to ignore the reality that inmates in the prison, like those elsewhere in the prison system, are behind prison walls in secure custody". They were "not in a position to take some of the liberties referred to".

Detailing temporary release for the four men, he said prisoner Kevin Walsh had been granted three overnights temporary release to visit his sick father this month; Pearse McAuley was granted three overnights in October 2000 and January 2001 to visit his sick father and three nights to attend his father's funeral in April this year. Michael O'Neill had three overnights in October last year to visit his sick mother, and Jeremiah Sheehy was granted three overnights in December last year to visit his sick mother.

Two of the men have applied to the courts for release under the Belfast Agreement.

Rejecting the notion of a holiday camp, Mr O'Donoghue said the four men were in "quite basic" accommodation, in an area surrounded by perimeter walls, covered by CCTV and were supervised at all times by prison staff.

Given the developments in the peace process, he said, it was not "inappropriate that they should not be detained in a maximum security setting".

He pointed out that 19 non-subversive prisoners were in the same area in the prison and all had access to the same type of facilities available in other low security prisons.

Mr Shatter said Det Garda McCabe's widow, Mrs Anne McCabe, had expressed concern that she only learnt of the temporary releases either in press reports or "at the last minute and is not given any reasonable or practical notice of such releases".

The Minister replied that every effort was made to provide notice to Mrs McCabe and her family, and his understanding was that they would have been informed the day prior to the release.