Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has denied reports that the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe were in control of a section of Castlerea prison in Roscommon.
The killers - Pearse McAuley, Kevin Walsh, Jeremiah Sheehy and Michael O'Neill - were sentenced in 1999 for between 11 and 14 years for manslaughter.
The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
Responding to a question by Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, in the Dáil, Mr Ahern said it was "entriely inaccurate" to say the Provisional IRA men had a major say in the running of the bungalow complex part of the prison known as The Grove.
According to a newspaper report this morning, the Inspector of Prisons, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, has examined the prison set up and the Prison Officers Association has said the policy of integration has not worked.
"I have been told that it is entirely inaccurate that these prisoners are in control of the prison," Mr Ahern told the Dáil this morning.
"The fact of the matter is that the [killers] of the Det Garda Jerry McCabe are in prison and will remain there for the duration of their sentences and I have no information from the Department of Justice or from the Governor of the prison that the circumstances have changed from what they were in 1999.
"In 1999, the Provisional IRA prisoners were moved to The Grove area of Castlerea," Mr Ahern explained. "It is an open prison, it is not in any way a luxurious prison but it is an open prison, so the procdures there are obviously less strict than elsewhere."
Following a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin today, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said his department had directed that the prisoners must obey prison rules on the same basis as everybody else.
Mr McDowell that he would not hesitate to move them "if it became clear that public confidence was being undermined".
But this morning's report says the PIRA prisoners had an effective veto over the duties assigned inmates. For example some were objecting to working with sex offenders and drug dealers.
Mr Ahern last week firmly ruled out the early release for the killers of Det Garda McCabe, even as part of a comprehensive deal with Sinn Féin.
Their possible release was the subject of political contention throughout last year's failed attempts to reach a comprehensive deal in the North.
He said that while the Government was prepared to consider the release of the four men as part of an agreement, this was no longer the case. The issue "won't be part" of any future discussions in relation to a deal for as long as he was Taoiseach, he said.
