THE Taoiseach responded sharply when he was asked if the former IRA activist Mr Sean O'Callaghan was to be questioned by the Garda about a Kerry murder.

Mr Tom Kit, (FE, Dublin South) referred to Tuesday night's RTE Prime Time programme on Mr O'Callaghan, adding: "Would you assure the House that Mr Sean O'Callaghan, who is the subject of that programme, will be pursued by the gardai and questioned in relation to the murder in Kerry in 1985 of Sean Corcoran?"

Mr Bruton said there was an independent system of law enforcement in the State, which was not the subject of political directions.

"I think that the attempt by the deputy to engage in this House in the making of directions in regard to who should be questioned about what offence suggests that he does not understand one of the great pillars of Irish democracy, founded 75 years ago, which is that we have an independent police service and an independent prosecution service. And I think that the deputy's attempt to politicise this issue does him and his associates no credit whatever."

Mr Kitt again raised the matter later and said that the Taoiseach was being very clever in his response. He was raising a very serious issue, he added. "In relation to the Prime Time programme, are you suggesting that the Garda should not investigate the questions raised by it? I hope you are not suggesting it."

Mr Bruton replied that the gardai operated independently: under the law in the investigative functions they undertook. They operated under a commissioner who did not take directions from the Government as to what crimes should be investigated and so forth.

He said that Mr Kitt's attempt to raise the particular individual's case in a political way suggested that he did not understand that the Garda was well able to make its own decisions, without political prompting from anybody, from Mr Kitt or from the Government, on whom it should prosecute or not.

Mr Bruton suggested it was "entirely improper" for Mr Kitt to raise an individual case in the House, and he thought it was a question which was indeed quite serious in the level of respect that Mr Kitt had shown for the independence of the Garda in the matter. He thought that Mr Kitt's suggestion was "quite chilling" in terms of the implications it had for the approach that he would have if he was, unfortunately, to, have any responsible office.