The PSNI chief constable will take his place on a panel in Londonderry on Wednesday evening alongside Sinn Fein chairperson Declan Kearney, amid the continuing fallout from the IRA’s involvement in the murder of Kevin McGuigan. “If the minister has any information or suspicion of illegal activity, it is her duty to bring it to the gardaí instead of casting political smears”, Mr Stanley said.
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On Tuesday, Tánaiste Joan Burton said she did not believe him.
“If anything it is Mr Adams himself who has been raising these issues and as I say for all democrats, the notion that people who were in the IRA would have moved into criminality and racketeering has to be deeply worrying for the future of our country”, said Ms Burton.
Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Féin, an Irish republican party, told the BBC because the republican movement is now committed to peace, armed groups like the IRA don’t need to exist.
Mr Stanley said there may be other groups masquerading as “some kind of IRA” such as the Real IRA or the continuity IRA but they should disband and go away as they had no contribution to make.
Meanwhile, a PSNI detective last week linked the organisation with the murder of Kevin McGuigan, which authorities believe could have been a revenge killing after the earlier murder of Gerard “Jock” Davison.
“My understanding is, very much in line with that of the chief constable, that a number of the organisational structures of the Provisional IRA still exist but that there is no evidence it’s involved in terrorism or paramilitary activity”, she said.
“I’m meeting Secretary of State Theresa Villiers on Tuesday, and what I said on Sunday was exactly what I’m saying today in relation to the provisional IRA – that our assessment and the security assessment is inline with what the independent monitoring commission said”.
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The man is the eleventh person to be arrested in connection with the murder.
