EU chiefs urged to act over IRA army council

European Union chiefs were today urged to put pressure on Sinn Féin to disband the IRA Army Council.

Independent unionist MEP Jim Allister issued the call after he raised concerns in the European Parliament that the IRA Army Council was still controlling and managing a portfolio of several hundred million euros accumulated through crime.

The ex-Democratic Unionist MEP, who quit the party in March over its powersharing deal with Sinn Féin, also said he was disappointed that his former colleagues appeared to be disinterested about the ongoing existence of the IRA Army Council.

He said: “I expect European Union leaders would be appalled by any links between organised crime and any government within the European Union.

“Yet that is exactly the situation in Northern Ireland where Sinn Féin, a lead party in government, is inextricably linked to the IRA whose illegal Army Council controls a portfolio of several hundred million euros, accumulated from the IRA’s organised crime activities.

“This is one of the reasons why the Army Council has not been disbanded.

“I have asked the Portuguese President of the council on European efforts to combat organised crime to join in condemning this obscenity and press IRA/Sinn Fein to disband its Army Council.”

Mr Allister, who last week joined disaffected unionists who discussed the prospect of forming a new party opposed to powersharing with Sinn Féin, at a meeting in Moygashel Orange Hall in Co Tyrone, said it was one of the lamentable failures of the DUP to accept Sinn Féin as a partner in government while the IRA Army Council remained.

“One of its key functions is to control and manage its huge portfolio of ill-gotten gains,” he said.

“How the DUP can be disinterested in this obscene situation is beyond my comprehension.

“I have, therefore, challenged the EU since it avowed total opposition to organised crime in all its manifestations to challenge Sinn Fein, as a party of government within the EU, to act to disband the Army Council and end its hoarding of organised crime proceeds.

“There is no denying that the IRA has grown fat on organised crime for years.

“Does anyone seriously doubt that its Army Council does not control its multi-million pound portfolio? Hence, one of the reasons why it still exists.”