The wife of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe has dismissed the apology by the four IRA men who killed him as an irrelevant publicity stunt.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Today with Pat Kenny, Anne McCabe said the apology was a PR exercise that was nine years too late.
Mrs McCabe also dismissed their claim that they were covered by the Good Friday Agreement. She said they were only interested in criminality and murder.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, a Garda Representative Association spokesman in Limerick, Kevin McCarthy, earlier described the statement as opportunist and cynical.
In their apology, the killers of Garda McCabe said they wanted the issue of their early release to be taken off the table in future discussions between Sinn Féin and the Government.
In the statement, the four men also apologise for the grief they caused to the McCabe and O'Sullivan families.
The Government gave a guarded response to the statement yesterday.
A Government spokeswoman said that although their apology was welcome, their request was irrelevant in the light of the Taoiseach's earlier statement that the issue of early release is already off the table.
The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, said this 'belated statement from the men simply recognises reality that the Government has already ruled out any consideration of the early release of the men in future talks'.
In the North, unionists dismissed the prisoners' statement as dishonest and selfish, while the SDLP said it was beyond belief.
