The Government has been accused of "distasteful political opportunism" over the timing of a State funeral for Kevin Barry. Funerals will also be held for nine other Volunteers executed during the War of Independence.
Labour leader Ruairí Quinn said that the timing of the funeral, on the weekend of the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis, was "clearly politically motivated".
A Government spokesperson insisted the date was the only one which suited both the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the President, Mary McAleese.
The best known of the ten men was Kevin Barry, an 18-year-old medical student executed in 1920. Yesterday, the Cabinet agreed to exhume the bodies from Mountjoy Gaol for a State funeral on 14 October.
The planned funeral would see a cortege bring the bodies to the Pro-Cathedral for Requiem Mass, before continuing to Glasnevin Cemetery were nine will be buried in the Republican plot with full military honours after an oration by the Taoiseach.
The body of the tenth, Patrick Maher, will be reburied in his native Limerick at the request of his family. The plan has been criticised by Labour leader Ruairí Quinn, who complained that the funeral would take place on the weekend of the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis.
