Ahern to meet PSNI chief over spy claims
The PSNI chief constable will brief Mr Ahern, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern and Justice Minister Michael McDowell at Government buildings. Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy will also attend.
Yesterday, Mr Orde insisted the high-profile police raid in Stormont in October 2002 had not caused the collapse of the Assembly.
He said it had been caused by the discovery in West Belfast around that time of hundreds of documents containing highly sensitive and confidential information.
He said these included transcripts of conversations between British Prime Minster Tony Blair and US President George Bush as well as notes on discussions between the British government and political parties in Northern Ireland, but not Sinn Féin.
"These documents exist. They are real," he said.
"Most have sensitive information targeted against politicians, against civil servants, against members of the police service, against members of the prison service."
But Sinn Féin yesterday angrily rejected his version of events. The party's policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said Mr Orde had neglected to mention the documents were found in the home of Denis Donaldson, the Sinn Féin administrator who admitted last Friday he was a British agent for 20 years.
He was one of three men arrested during the search and who were charged with being involved in an intelligence-gathering operation. These charges were withdrawn a fortnight ago.
Yesterday, Mr Kelly repeated the claim that the spy ring in operation in Stormont was not a republican one but one orchestrated by British 'securocrats'.
Meanwhile, the Government said the legislation to grant an amnesty to so-called on-the-runs (OTRs) was always an initiative that was to be done in parallel with the British government.
A spokesperson for the Taoiseach said if the British government withdrew the OTR legislation, so would the Irish Government.
Sinn Féin yesterday said it would no longer support the legislation, which also extends amnesties to members of the security forces. SF MP Pat Doherty said that had never been envisaged in 2001.
However, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said that SF's late withdrawal of support vindicated the SDLP's long-standing opposition to the legislation.
"Sinn Féin have called the OTR issue wrong from the start - and are still trying to cover up the fact they sold out victims in the dirty deal they did at Hillsborough (in 2003)," he said.
