IRA end would be huge relief, says Orde

IRA disbandment would ease the huge pressures facing police fighting racketeering in Northern Ireland, PNSI chief constable Hugh Orde claimed today.

As he launched the first cross-border organised crime assessment in Ireland, Mr Orde confirmed the Provisionals were still heavily involved in smuggling, fraud and other money-making schemes.

Unionist demands for the IRA to halt their terror operation are central to attempts by the British and Irish governments to restore the power sharing executive in Belfast.

A deal to begin dismantling the organisation was believed to have been tabled during last week’s peace summit at Leeds Castle, Kent, which failed to produce a political breakthrough. Mr Orde accepted the move would lift some of the demands facing his officers.

He said: “Anything that suggests any organisation that is committing crime is going away is a very positive statement.

“I can focus on other criminal gangs that are committing crime so we can lock them up, and it will make people feel that Northern Ireland is a safer place.”

The IRA has already carried out three acts of decommissioning as part of efforts to get the devolved Stormont Assembly up and running again. It collapsed two years ago amid allegations that the terror group was gathering intelligence inside the Northern Ireland office.

Mr Orde refused to reveal if he had any intelligence to suggest a further move on IRA weapons was imminent.

“I’m not commenting on the current situation because it seems to be a) very sensitive and b) a matter for others, not a matter for police officers,” he said.

But at the assessment, which was published jointly with Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, he did hit out at claims by both republican and loyalist paramilitaries that their heavy involvement in drug dealing, money-laundering and other rackets was part of any ideological campaign.

He insisted: “Let’s forget this nonsense that people are trying to fight for some greater good. Let’s look at them for exactly what they are, they are criminals who are parasites on the community and who are destroying communities.”