McDowell refuses to recognise end to IRA criminality

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell has refused to accept IRA criminality is at an end, despite the organisation decommissioning its weapons last weekend.

He said he would not be satisfied until the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) - the body established by the two governments to monitor paramilitary activity - gave the IRA a clean bill of health in forthcoming reports, the first of which is due later this month, the second in January.

His remarks came as Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, at a press conference in Belfast, urged the governments to move rapidly towards the restoration of the power-sharing institutions in the North.