Tánaiste: Vote for Sinn Féin is a vote for army council

Tánaiste Joan Burton has told the Dáil a vote for Sinn Féin was a vote for the army council.

In her statement on Northern Ireland, Ms Burton said the findings of a recent report into paramilitary activity make it clear the IRA still exerts power over Sinn Féin.

The assessment by the British government of the IRA is clear: the army council continues to exist and exerts control over Sinn Féin.

“It asks fundamental questions about our democracy if a party that is in government in the North, and aspires to government in the South, continues to operate in this way.

“Vote Sinn Féin, get the army council.”

The report into paramilitary groups had been commissioned in the wake of the murder of Kevin McGuigan in August and was released last month. It revealed that the structures of all paramilitary groups, including the IRA, remain intact. However, it found that these organisations are no longer involved in terrorist activities.

Ms Bruton said: “There has to be a break from all forms of paramilitarism and criminality.

“That doesn’t just mean words, it requires actions.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said statements to the effect that the IRA have gone away or have left the stage are “simply not credible”.

He said: “It is the responsibility of Sinn Fein and, in particular, its leadership to address these issues and to help restore the trust that has been lost.

“We have become used to incredible statements be they about past activity, current activity, murder, robbery and child abuse. Paramilitarism, and all its vestiges, must be removed. We need clear lines, not blurred lines, between constitutional politics and criminality.”

Responding in the Dáil last night Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said it had taken “great patience” to sit and listen to some of the “lies that have been peddled” as part of the earlier contributions.

He said there had been a “determined effort to criminalise and demonise republicans, especially those living along the border”.

He described as “patent rubbish” reports of a “twilight zone” along the border in which the gardaí had turned a blind eye to those involved in fuel laundering.