Peace process - Loyalist arms should not be ignored

There was nothing extraordinary in what Justice Minister Michael McDowell said yesterday about the Government waiting for reports from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) before giving the IRA a clean bill of health.

Nobody has given them such a status so what was rather intriguing was why he adverted to it at this stage.

Anybody concerned about the peace process will await those reports anxiously. One of them is due this month and the other in January.