IRA weapons handover 'a stunt' - Paisley

Decommissioning of arms carried out by the IRA would be worthless without detailed information on the weapons destroyed, DUP leader Ian Paisley has claimed.

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

After a 40-minute meeting with Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street - described by Dr Paisley as ‘‘forthright and useful’’ - 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.’’

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.

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

The meeting 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 Prime Minister Tony Blair 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.