By Paddy Clancy

Presure continues to mount from the opposition for the resignation of junior minister Tony Killeen over his representations to the government seeking early release for a number of prisoners.

After his attempts to obtain early releases for a convicted murderer and an elderly child sex-abuser were exposed last week ago under the Freedom of Information Act, further representations to senior ministers by his office have been uncovered.

They include details of efforts to obtain the transfer out of top-security Portlaoise Prison of dissident Republican Michael Hegarty, a former Provo said to be the leader of the Continuity IRA in Killeen’s Co. Clare constituency.

Hegarty was jailed 10 years ago after his arrest while attempting to transport a 1,300 pound bomb into Northern Ireland. He was regarded as a key leader of factions determined to wreck the peace process.

Killeen confirmed this week that his office made representations in 2002 after he was contacted by Monsignor Denis Faul on Hegarty’s behalf. Faul and others were attempting to bring dissidents into the peace process.

Killeen said Hegarty was in very bad health and under prison medical attention at the time.

Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern spoke out in favor of Killeen, the labor affairs minister of state, when the controversy broke. But Ahern has been silent in the wake of subsequent revelations about the numbers of representations made by the junior minister.

Killeen, in a bid to defuse the situation, sought and obtained a meeting with Nora Lynch, whose son Robert was murdered by Chris Cooney, on whose behalf four letters seeking an early release were sent from the minister’s constituency office.

Following the meeting, when Mrs. Lynch demanded that a new system be put in place whereby politicians would have no involvement in the early or temporary release of prisoners, Killeen said he would be consulting colleagues on their views on such a ban.

He said he will seek to establish whether an independent ombudsman could be appointed to receive all representations from prisoner relatives on such issues.