Paisley throws cold water on IRA statement

THE Rev Ian Paisley said the unionist community would judge the IRA’s bona fides over the next months and years based on its behaviour and activity.

He said: “Even on the face of the statement, they have failed to explicitly declare an end to their multi-million-pound criminal activity and they have failed to provide the level of transparency that will be necessary to truly build confidence that the guns have gone in their entirety.

“This lack of transparency will prolong the period the community will need to make its assessment.

“We treat with contempt their attempt to glorify and justify their murder campaign and we will be evaluating the extent of the price paid by the government and the consequences that will have for the political process,” he said.

Mr Paisley’s son, DUP Assembly member for North Antrim, Ian Junior, told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “It would an act of unparalleled stupidity to accept the words of the Provisional IRA and the words alone.

"What I am interested in, and what the vast majority of law-abiding citizens in this part of the United Kingdom will be interested in, are the actions of the IRA.

“The IRA are always interested in these great PR and choreographed statements, but their words count for very little.

“We want to see peace, but we’re not going to be taken for a ride.

“This statement says absolutely nothing about the IRA disbanding. It justifies and legitimises IRA atrocity after IRA atrocity (that) are as bad as and in many instances worse than London suffered this July.”

SDLP leader Marc Durkan said the statement appeared to show the IRA had broken with its past, and hoped its involvement in organised crime would end for good, as well as the culture of cover-up and community control. It was vital, he said, that the Provisionals deliver quickly on what they have promised.

Mr Durkan added: “There is also an onus on the two governments and the unionist parties to work together to deliver the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.”

Reg Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said many people would be reserving judgment until the IRA’s words were translated into actions. “I can’t take any statement from the republican movement at face value because we have had that many of them in the past,” he said.

Mr Empey predicted it would be some time before a power-sharing Executive was resumed.

Democratic Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson said any possibility of the resumption of power-sharing would depend on how long it takes the IRA to complete decommissioning and how it is verified.

“That will be determined by how long it takes the IRA to complete the decommissioning process. We’ve no indication in this statement of when that will be done,” he said.