Conroy insists IRA has ended crime in Republic

THE IRA has completely abandoned all crime in the Republic, the garda chief insisted yesterday.

Commissioner Noel Conroy delivered his verdict after Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley accused Northern secretary Peter Hain of trying to deceive the public over the scale of the Provisionals’ shift away from robberies, smuggling and racketeering.

Mr Paisley’s scathing attack followed a meeting with the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) whose latest paramilitary ceasefire dossier gave the IRA a clean bill of health.