The Taoiseach disputed Mr Gerry Adams's version of events on the proposed release of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
"On what the president of Sinn Féin said today, it is clear that Mr Adams is under an enormous misapprehension," said Mr Ahern. "The Government made it clear at the time of the Good Friday agreement that the release of Jerry McCabe's killers was not covered by the agreement. I said so on several occasions, including in a letter and in subsequent statements in this House and elsewhere."
Mr Ahern said Mr Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness had argued that they should be covered, but the Government argued that they should not.
He was replying to the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, who said that Mr Adams had claimed that the Taoiseach told him privately, before the agreement was finalised, that the killers would be covered by the early release terms of the agreement and that there could be no exemptions. "At the time, the Taoiseach was giving solemn assurances to the contrary to the family of Jerry McCabe and the public."
Mr Ahern said there had been a substantial number of discussions from September 1997 right through to 1998. "At no stage was there an agreement that the murderers of Jerry McCabe would be included in the Good Friday agreement.
"We are talking about something which happened six years ago. This is why these people are in prison for the past six years.
"Some of them are in prison eight years next month because we said they will not be released. I recall Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness arguing that prisoners should be released after May 22nd, but we refused to do so. This is why they are still in prison. If they were to have been released, they would have been immediately. We held the line that they were not included in the agreement."
Mr Ahern added that "to say anyone mentioned releasing them on April 10th, 1998, or any period up to that, when they were not fully convicted until February 1999, is impossible".
Earlier, the Taoiseach said that he and the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, had made it clear that the issue of the release of Det Garda McCabe's killers could only be considered in the context of acts of completion in the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, which meant ending the conflict once and for all.
"I said this last week, and I say the same now. I do not think I need to go over what the Minister said last night. I have looked at the text of what he said, which is what I have been saying for months."
He said the process of engagement between the two governments was continuing. "We want to clear away as many issues as possible before the summer."
