Ahern: Govt 'satisfied' IRA, SF leadership linked

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said today that the Government is absolutely satisfied that the leadership of the IRA and Sinn Féin are linked.

Speaking this afternoon, he said it was inconceivable that the IRA wasn't involved in the Northern Bank raid or in the money-laundering operation currently being investigated by Gardaí.

Minister Ahern said that he concurred with his cabinet colleague Michael McDowell who earlier named Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris as members of the IRA army council.

Mr Ahern said that it was decision-time for Sinn Féin: “We’ve really reached, in effect, the Rubicon, where people have to make the decision – do they want democracy?”

He said that Sinn Féin “have to rebuild the confidence and trust of the ordinary democratic parties, not least in the republic but also in the north.”

“There cannot be this underground criminality and at the same time democracy, people espousing that they have a mandate. The vast majority of the people who voted for them (SF) did not vote for robberies, money laundering, and particularly punishment shootings.”