Orde calls for change in bail law

PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde today demanded legislative changes in a bid to halt paramilitary chiefs being granted High Court bail in Northern Ireland.

As he marked his first anniversary in charge of the North's police service, Mr Orde also warned that the Provisional IRA and dissident republican terrorists could be plunged into a bloody feud.

Even though he has scored big successes in his attempt to smash the loyalist terror organisations since he moved to Belfast, the Chief Constable hit out at how quickly some of the key men were let back on the streets.

He said: “One of my frustrations over the year is where we have been successful in taking out what we would describe as major players, some of whom are now serving long-term imprisonment, was the speed with which they managed to get bail when charged with very serious criminal offences.

“It may be we need a change in legislation.”

Although the Ulster Defence Association, Northern Ireland’s biggest loyalist paramilitary organisation, has called a 12-month end to all military operations, Mr Orde said he was sceptical about its motives.

But he stressed there was no intelligence warning that the Provisional IRA’s ceasefire was about to break down.

He added however, that mainstream republicans still had more to do in order to help drag the Northern Ireland peace process out of crisis.

Mr Orde said: “There are a number of cases going through the court process at the minute suggesting other activity continues.

“At some stage they (the IRA) have got to make a decision and that’s really what normalisation is all about. The big disappointment of the last year is that we didn’t move the political debate and the political agenda didn’t move on as quickly as policing has moved on.”

The Chief Constable said that when he took the job he was unaware of just how much scrutiny was placed in what he described as one of the most complex policing environments in Europe.

One of the major threats to peace still came from renegade republican groupings such as the so-called Real IRA and Continuity IRA, he confirmed.

With west Belfast man Eddie McGurk having been shot dead by dissidents two weeks ago, fears have heightened that a violent dispute may break out between the Provisionals and republicans who are opposed to the Sinn Fein leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

Mr Orde accepted that there were tense relationships between the different factions and that fall-outs were inevitable.

He added: “We have seen a loyalist feud and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility to see a feud on the other side.”