Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy is to make a public apology for comments he made about Paul Quinn, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
The mother of Mr Quinn - who was ambushed, beaten and killed by a gang of men near Oram in Co Monaghan in 2007 - had called on Mr Murphy to apologise over comments he made linking her son to criminality.
The Independent Monitoring Commission has said it believes the IRA was involved in the murder and it was the result of a local dispute.
Speaking to the BBC in November 2007, Mr Murphy had claimed that Mr Quinn "was involved in smuggling and criminality".
This week, Paul Quinn's mother Breege said she wouldn't meet Mr Murphy until he publicly apologised for the remarks.
This morning, Mary Lou McDonald said: "Conor Murphy will issue a statement later today - he will retract and apologise for comments made in relation to Paul."
Mary Lou McDonald says Conor Murphy will issue a public apology for comments he made about Paul Quinn following his murder | via @KaceyORiordan #GE2020 #VoiceOfTheVoter pic.twitter.com/0RiK1fbVJD
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) February 5, 2020
She added that she was "very pleased" that Mrs Quinn had welcomed her comments in last night's RTÉ debate.
Ms McDonald had previously said Mr Murphy had "never asserted that Paul was a criminal".
However, after the comments he made to the BBC were read out to her last night, Ms McDonald said she had thought Mr Murphy's comments "had not been as explicit".
She said that the remarks were wrong and "will be apologised for".
Ms McDonald has previously insisted that the "criminals in this scenario are those that gave [Paul Quinn] such a horrific death".
