Paramilitaries redundant, British-Irish body told

The British-Irish parliamentary body has been told that paramilitaries are redundant.

The meeting in Manchester has heard that the ball is now firmly in Sinn Fein's court in order to have the Northern Assembly up and running again.

In a debate on the peace process, Jim O'Keefe of Fine Gael said the central issue at the moment in the North is policing.

Fianna Fail's Seamus Kirk told the meeting that the removal of British army watchtowers in border counties would help relations between the two countries.

Mr Kirk said there was a need for police in the North to operate a database so that Northern motorists caught speeding south of the border would also get penalty points.