Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams has defended a campaign by the party's TDs for the release of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
Mr Adams described as "opportunistic" criticism of a photograph which appeared in An Phoblachtof Sinn Féin deputies alongside the men who are serving sentences for the killing.
The picture, taken in Castlerea prison earlier this year when four Sinn Féin TDs visited the prisoners, has resulted in an internal inquiry by the Irish Prison Service. Disciplinary measures may be taken against prison staff as a result of the breach.
Mr Adams said today: "There is a campaign for the release of those prisoners and clearly under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement they should be released."
He said the issue was "very distressing" for the McCabe family. "It is certainly not an issue that we wish to be dragged into every second or third week. I was one of the people who negotiated for the release of prisoners. I did not just negotiate for the release of republican prisoners.
Mr Adams said such cases would be "opportunistically seized upon in an attempt to beat up Sinn Féin". I feel those who are jumping on the issue have their own agendas and those agendas are anti-Sinn Fein."
He added that the issue could not be settled to the satisfaction of Jerry McCabe's family and that he had "great compassion" for them.
"I negotiated also for the release of loyalist prisoners. I negotiated for the release of prisoners who killed family members, party members, neighbours, friends," Mr Adams said.
Garda McCabe's widow Ann condemned Sinn Fein's TDs for posing for the photograph. She said: "I thought it was unusual to see that Dail deputies would be allowed in to stand beside the convicted killers of my husband. I thought it was against the rules of the jail."
Mrs McCabe also said today she believed that despite Sinn Fein's campaign for the prisoners' swift release, they would serve their full time.
Det Garda Jerry McCabe was shot dead during an attempted robbery of the post office in Adare, Co Limerick in June 1996.
Pearse McAuley from Strabane, Co Tyrone, and Kevin Walsh from Limerick were jailed for 14 years for his manslaughter. Jeremiah Sheehy and Michael O'Neill from Co Limerick are also serving sentences in relation to the killing.
All four appeared in the photograph with Sinn Féin TDs Mr Caomhghin O'Caolain, Mr Sean Crowe, Mr Aengus O'Snodaigh and Mr Martin Ferris.