North in Crisis: Review of Provisional IRA has integrity, says Coveney

Defence Minister Simon Coveney has said the Government’s investigation into whether the Provisional IRA still exists in some form has not been undermined by revelations that top civil servants have known this is the case for a decade.

Michael McDowell, who was justice minister at the time of the 2005 provisional IRA decommissioning, yesterday confirmed the then government agreed to allow an “unarmed and withering husk” to continue after the historic event to lessen the risk of a fresh armed split.

It has been alleged by PSNI chief constable George Hamilton and others that this “withering husk” has morphed into a criminal group linked to the murders of two people in Belfast, an issue which has led to widespread concerns about the ongoing existence of a form of the Provisional IRA.