Perhaps I might revisit a matter discussed yesterday. It is perfectly clear that, when the Irish people voted on the Good Friday Agreement, they did so on the clear understanding that the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe would not be covered by the early release provisions and that they would never benefit from them, instead serving their time. Assurances were given to the nation and the Dáil by the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform that those killers could never benefit from the early release provisions. Clear and unambiguous statements were made by all three.

Over last weekend and yesterday, the Taoiseach and Ministers clearly shifted their position. The Taoiseach now talks about early release being considered if the achievement of acts of completion were assured. The Tánaiste says that early release would be considered only after the IRA had been disbanded and all paramilitary and criminal activities stopped. However, the leader of Sinn Féin, Mr. Gerry Adams, who was party to those discussions, says that the killers involved, who pumped 12 bullets into the body of Detective Garda McCabe, would be walking the streets if the October deal had been agreed, with a single act of decommissioning. That has caused revulsion among the ordinary, decent citizens of this land.

My question to the Taoiseach on behalf of the people is whom are we to believe. It should be much easier to believe the Taoiseach of our country rather than have to find out what has been going on behind our backs from the leader of the Sinn Féin Party, which has known links to the Provisional IRA. Was that deal on the table last October and if those events had come to a satisfactory conclusion, would those killers now be walking our streets?

I will revisit just some of the points I made yesterday. I said that what we wanted and needed to achieve was still the same, the complete ending of IRA paramilitarism, decommissioning, the ending of the IRA, acts of absolute completion and the end of the conflict. Those are the issues we have been negotiating for the past two years or so. At the time of the Good Friday Agreement the cases were still pending and people had not been charged. However, we said that the McCabe killers would not be included under the Good Friday Agreement, neither are they. That was over six years ago and we did not release the prisoners under that scheme. Had that been the case, they would have been set free in 1998 or 1999, as all the prisoners in Northern Ireland were. That question answers itself, they were not released.

What was being considered was the context in which the possible release of the killers of Jerry McCabe might arise. It was to happen only in the context of acts of total completion, as I have said — that term means arms decommissioning and an end to all forms of paramilitarism by the IRA, which means that the IRA will have moved definitively away from violence to the end position. I made that clear in the debate in the House last year when I said that there was no doubt about the object or purpose of the IRA and Sinn Féin statements on 21 October. We had consistently made it clear that a complete transition to a peaceful and democratic society in Northern Ireland was required. I do not want Deputy Kenny to say that it was the mere matter of a single act of arms decommissioning. That was not the arrangement last year, and no one was trying to achieve that. It was only one part of the total process of what we were trying to negotiate in April and October. We are still trying to negotiate that and have not been successful.

The events of 21 October did not unfold in a way that instilled the confidence necessary to complete the sequence of events that would have given completeness to the process under negotiation all last year. Yesterday I said that it involved a complex set of undertakings with a range of elements which would emerge as a sequence of agreed statements and supporting actions, some by the Government, some by Sinn Féin, some by the IRA and some by Unionists. Everyone was playing his or her part in a sequence and process negotiated over the year. Our goal was clear, a way forward on all outstanding issues, bringing closure to those once and for all. It remains the agenda of the Government to try to achieve that, if we ever can. However, we did not achieve that position.

Deputy Kenny asked whether, having achieved all that, we would have honoured our commitments. Yes, we would have done so. If all those points had been agreed, we would have honoured our commitments. However, that did not happen. I emphasise that we are not talking about one point but about a whole sequence and range of issues.

The Taoiseach has caused further confusion because he has not answered the question. When he says the IRA has moved to end position, that is different from what he said in recent days to the effect that it was a long way from that. He has not said, in honouring his commitments, whether or not this was moved on to the table last October. I would remind the House of what the Tánaiste said. She said in Volume 466 of the Official Report on 11 June 1996:

There is no room for ambivalence in relation to such issues. Anyone who falls short of condemning what happened on Friday last, the murder of a member of the Garda Síochána and the serious injury of another, cannot call themselves democrats. One is either for or against violence. There is no grey area in between.

Last weekend the leader of Sinn Féin told us he felt cheated. However, the people who can rightly feel cheated are Anne McCabe, her family and the late Garda McCabe's relatives, friends and colleagues. I accept the Tánaiste was absolutely clear in her comment. She said yesterday that the release of these killers would only take place after all had been laid down, guns decommissioned, an end to racketeering, abductions and kneecappings — matters which the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has lectured us about in terms of the IRA and what it does.

The Taoiseach knows that the IRA and Sinn Féin are two sides of the one coin. When he says, "We would have honoured our commitment," does that mean that he moved the release of the McCabe killers on to the table for last October and that in the words of Mr. Gerry Adams, "They would now be walking the streets"? In other words, would the IRA have gone away? Does the Taoiseach believe it would have gone away last October if this sequence of events had occurred? Am I to believe the words of my Taoiseach, the leader of our country, or am I to believe Mr. Gerry Adams? Which is it? Was this on the table last October or was it not?

I would ask the Deputy to give way to the Taoiseach.

I know that Deputy Kenny is trying to establish that there are some differences in viewpoints on this. There are not.

"Yes" or "No".

"Yes" or "No".

I will make it very clear. I have a minute in which to make three brief points.

One answer.

If I can answer——

I will ask Deputy English to leave the House. The Taoiseach is entitled to have his reply heard without interruption. I am sorry. The Deputy will be asked to leave the House.

The Government has been consistent in what it has been seeking to do. We have set out in paragraph 13 of the Joint Declaration that we have been trying to bring paramilitarism to an end. We have stated that six years after the agreement transmission to exclusively democratic means must be completed and that ongoing paramilitary activity, sectarian violence and criminality masquerading as a political cause are all corrosive of the trust and confidence necessary to sustain a durable political process.

Why does the Taoiseach not answer the question?

That is what the Government has stated. We have said that paramilitarism and sectarian violence must be brought to an end, regardless of from which community they come. In this instance we were talking about the Provisional IRA. We said we needed to see an immediate, full, permanent cessation of all military activity, including military attacks, training, targeting, intelligence gathering, the acquisition or development of arms or weapons, other preparations for terrorist campaigns, punishment beatings, attacks and involvement in riots etc. Moreover, the practice of exiling must be brought to an end and exiles must be free to return safely home. Sectarian attacks and intimidation directed at vulnerable communities must cease. We have stated in reply to a fair question from Deputy Kenny that all this must be signed up to totally and completely——

Categorically.

——and within a process of verification by the Independent Monitoring Commission, which was not then in existence — its establishment was agreed at last, 12 months ago last March — and that then we are prepared to honour our commitments. Other commitments had to be dealt with by others, particularly the British Government as regards "on the runs", OTRs. That might have affected us. We have also parliamentary scrutiny, demilitarisation, decommissioning and a host of issues.

I would make the point that I have some experience of Northern Ireland. I am not an expert, but I have some experience. If people expect us to bring it to finality but want the minutiae of the negotiations with people who are extremely difficult to deal with disclosed, I do not think we will ever bring it to an end. It is easy for people, not just Members of the House to take one item in isolation, but we will not be able to deal with it. Both the Tánaiste and I, as much as anyone else, have enormous issues of concern about the release of the four people who killed Garda McCabe.

It shames his family.

However, we are trying to stop the killing of hundreds and thousands of people that has continued for over 30 years. We are trying to end that once and for all. We could sit back and say in effect: "Well, it will drift on and it might never happen again." However, we can see what has happened elsewhere, in the Middle East and other places, and we are not prepared to let matters drift. We want to bring the peace process to finality, not play any games. That is what we are endeavouring to do.