Sinn Fein last night maintained there could be no selective release of terrorist prisoners as a result of the Northern Ireland Agreement. The party's vice-president, Mr Pat Doherty, declared: "All those imprisoned as a result of the conflict in Ireland must be released in line with a peace agreement."
He was speaking in response to comments by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, who ruled out the freeing of a group of men if they were convicted of murdering Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
Mr Doherty claimed there had been police pressure "to selectively influence the political question of the release of political prisoners".
He added: "Republicans are conscious of and sensitive to the hurt of those who have lost family members and friends.
"If we are serious about the business of conflict resolution and of leaving the bitter legacy of the past behind, then there must be a consistent attitude by those in authority to the question of all prisoners who are jailed as a result of the conflict. There cannot be any selectivity in this matter."
The British Prime Minister yesterday reassured critics of the Northern Ireland Agreement that paramilitary prisoners would not be granted early release if they posed a threat to the public or if the organisations to which they were attached continued to use violence.
Mr Tony Blair also restated his government's position that under the agreement any member appointed to the new Assembly in Northern Ireland would be excluded or removed from office if the paramilitary organisations they were associated with continued to be "engaged with or threatened terrorism".
In his first Question Time since the agreement was struck, Mr Blair paid tribute to the courage of the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, and the former prime minister, Mr John Major, in bringing about the deal.
The Tory leader, Mr William Hague, asked for an assurance "for those of us who are naturally uncomfortable" with the proposal that prisoners would not be released if they posed a risk to the public.
Mr Blair said he could give that assurance, and that if they were released it would be on licence.
On decommissioning, Mr Hague again asked for an assurance that no member of the Assembly would be appointed until any paramilitary organisation they were associated with engaged in "substantial decommissioning".
Mr Blair told the Commons that the government had made it clear it wanted to see the total disarmament of paramilitary organisations and that it would begin over the next two years.
He agreed that it would be a travesty of democracy if members of the Assembly were associated with organisations that threatened or engaged in violence. For that reason the agreement enabled those members to be excluded or removed and if, over the first six months of the Assembly the rules proved ineffective, "we will support changes to give them real teeth", Mr Blair said.
Earlier the Tory MP, Mr Alan Clark, asked the Prime Minister when he planned to extend the clemency afforded to paramilitary prisoners to the two Scots Guards sentenced to life for shooting a Belfast teenager, Peter McBride. Mr Blair responded that the deal on prisoners was "right and justifiable" and that prisoners would not be released unless the government was satisfied that they no longer posed a threat to security or safety.