IRA arms handover would be 'stunt': Paisley

Any decommissioning of arms carried out by the IRA over the next few days will be no more than a meaningless stunt, Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley predicted today.

The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has received indications that republican paramilitaries may be preparing their second act of decommissioning before Easter.

But Dr Paisley said that without detailed information about weapons which had been destroyed, such actions were worthless.

The first act of decommissioning last year was credited with breaking a logjam in the peace process, but Dr Paisley said that the head of the International Decommissioning Commission, General John De Chastelain, had been unable to verify how many weapons had been destroyed or where it had taken place.

After a 40-minute meeting with Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street he said: ‘‘There will not be decommissioning, but there will be, I think, another event which will be called decommissioning.

‘‘I don’t think anybody believes the last event did anything. It certainly didn’t do anything to stop the killings and the activities of the IRA.

‘‘This is a stunt because of the election in the south of Ireland.’’

At today’s meeting, Dr Paisley raised concerns over what his party sees as excessive British government concessions to republicans.

The meeting - characterised by Dr Paisley as ‘‘forthright and useful’’ - followed talks on Monday at which Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams pressed Mr Blair to declare an amnesty for IRA suspects on the run.

Dr Paisley said the British Prime Minister had told him no decision had been made on an amnesty, which he said was viewed with ‘‘very deep concern’’ by the unionist community.

He also raised worries over the break-in at Castlereagh as well as a shortfall in the police budget, overnight closures of police stations, the decision to lay off police reserves and the make-up of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The requirement for 50% of recruits to the force to be Catholic discriminated against the majority community, he said.

He warned that the IRA was already making threats against Catholic recruits.

Earlier today Dr Paisley’s son Ian Paisley Junior said that the majority of the unionist population was ‘‘sickened’’ by the string of concessions to republicans.

He said: ‘‘We have to attempt to stop the concessions. If the British Government continues to ignore the voice of the unionist people, the Government will find that, come the next election, the unionist people will be voting for a party that wishes to stop those concessions.’’