Probe into leak of Government document begins

Senior Government officials were today carrying out a high-level investigation into the disclosure of a sensitive document on official Dublin thinking about political developments in Northern Ireland.

The confidential paper was left in a room used by journalists after a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin yesterday.

Among other issues, it examined the position of the Ulster Unionist Party, led by David Trimble, First Minister in the currently-suspended Ulster executive.

Details of the embarrassing accidental leak emerged as political parties backing the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland prepared for round-table talks in Belfast.

The document – prepared for study by Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, involved in yesterday’s meeting with Ulster Secretary Paul Murphy and other ministers from the two governments – said the Unionist stance on the political impasse in Northern Ireland was “internally dysfunctional”.

It also questioned whether Mr Trimble’s party was willing to promote any potential advances in the wake of any gesture by the IRA ahead of elections planned in the North for next May and raised the Unionists’ concentration on the bid for supremacy within their community with the hard-line Democratic Unionists headed by the Reverend Ian Paisley.

The paper confirmed that the IRA was still active but maintained that the organisation was recruiting and gathering intelligence for defensive purposes only, and affirmed Dublin’s belief that the republican movement’s leadership is fully committed to the peace process.

The document was accidentally left in an area occupied by the media at Farmleigh – the Government-owned mansion where yesterday’s conference went ahead – and was seen by the Ulster Television TV station.

Senior Ulster Unionist figure Jeffrey Donaldson today denied the document’s claims about his party.

But he said the paper provided an insight into how the Irish Government viewed the Unionists.

Mr Donaldson told Irish radio: “I’m not so sure the Ulster Unionist Party is as dysfunctional as the Irish Government might suggest.

“I think that the party is at the moment pretty much united in terms of its opinion of the current status of the Provisional IRA and indeed what it expects the IRA to do if the political process is to be put back on track.”

The Lagan Valley MP said the document was a fairly accurate assessment of where the IRA was.

“I think that the reality is that we do need to see the IRA moving and moving in a very significant way,” he added.

According to the document, the IRA was “actively engaged in training, targeting, recruiting and acquiring small quantities of weapons as a precaution rather than in preparation for a return to war.”

It was also claimed Sinn Fein was preparing for a move onto Northern Ireland’s policing board, relaxing their previous position on that issue.

DUP MP for East Derry Gregory Campbell, whose party was not taking part in today’s talks, declared: “It would appear that an Irish Government document is saying that the Provos are still acquiring weapons – something many of us have been saying for some time.

“Obviously this casts a huge question mark over the discussions involving Sinn Fein.

“It has very serious implications for any discussions and in particular for the Ulster Unionist party who have been negotiating with the political wing of the IRA at a time when they have been rearming.”