The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has said it was "absolutely untrue" for the Minister for Justice to say Sinn Fein had been told the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe were excluded from the provisions of the Belfast Agreement. He accused the Government of being in breach of the agreement on the matter.
In a statement, he said Mr O'Donoghue, who was interviewed on The Marian Finu cane Show on RTE Radio 1 yesterday, made "a number of incorrect and misleading claims in relation to the Castlerea Five [the prisoners concerned]".
It was "absolutely untrue to say that Sinn Fein was told during the Good Friday negotiations that the Castlerea prisoners would be excluded from the Good Friday agreement early-release scheme. These men are covered under the Good Friday agreement and should be released now".
The Minister said Sinn Fein negotiators were told during the negotiations that these men would not qualify, he said, and he asked "who he [the Minister] believes made those comments?" and "where is the clause in the Good Friday agreement which excludes them?"
He continued that Sinn Fein did raise the case of the prisoners, along with others. "Irish Government representatives said that if these men were sentenced their early release would cause difficulties, but Sinn Fein insisted that there could be no exceptions.
"The absence of any clause in the Good Friday agreement excluding these particular prisoners is proof of how the negotiations closed. Indeed, the criterion is contained in the agreement. The early-release scheme covers all prisoners who belong to organisations on cessation at the time of the agreement."
Mr Adams said he was "very conscious of the pain of this for the McCabe family. The Castlerea prisoners are not prisoners apart. They qualify under the terms of the Good Friday agreement and they should be released now".
In the radio interview, Mr O'Donoghue said: "It was made perfectly clear to Sinn Fein negotiators during the negotiation of that agreement that they [the killers of Garda McCabe] were not going to come within the terms of the agreement."
He also said: "It has already been made very clear to Sinn Fein on numerous occasions that the people concerned do not qualify under the Good Friday agreement, and that was stated during the negotiations of the agreement itself, and everybody perfectly understood that."
Asked by Ms Finucane whether he believed in his "heart of hearts" that the Castlerea prisoners would still be in prison in five years' time, he said: "I believe that they will be in prison in five years' time for the simple reason that it has been explained over and over again that they do not qualify under the terms of the Good Friday agreement."
