‘Raid will have repercussions for SF’

CONFIRMATION that money found in garda raids in Cork earlier this year was part of the cash taken in the Northern Bank raid has significant implications for the Provisional movement and Sinn Féin, Justice Minister Micheal McDowell said yesterday.

“We are now clear that the Provisional IRA raided the Northern Bank in Belfast and we are equally clear that serious members of the Provisional movement and their adherents in the South tried to launder that money. This is of substantial significance in term of credibility of a number of people who stated in public that this was not the case and accused me and others of fabricating a case with the intention of damaging the peace process.”

He said these people had done the same in the past in a number of major cases, including the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.

He said there were serious political repercussions and the lying must end.

Mr McDowell said he was now pressing ahead with legislation to create a Garda Reserve.