Responding to comments by the head of the Republic’s police force Jim Allister said:
“Drew Harris’s candid comments about the role of the PIRA Army Council in overseeing Sinn Fein are in stark contrast with the attempts of our own Chief Constable to duck the issue a few days ago.
“In light of the fact that we now have official confirmation from the top police officer in the Republic that the situation hasn’t changed, it’s worth revisiting what the Independent Review Commission actually said about the IRA. The Provisionals.
• Retain an “Army Council” which members believed oversaw both the PIRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy;
• Retain “departments” with specific responsibilities and
• Still had weapons which had not been decommissioned.
“This is the organisation which is said to have a common leadership with Sinn Fein. Profoundly disturbing questions need to be confronted by Unionists who once pledged that “All paramilitary and criminal activity and terrorist structures must be abandoned before Sinn Fein is admitted to Government”.
“That is what the DUP manifesto said in 2007. Now, 13 years later and having provided Sinn Fein with a fit for government character reference to be produced during the Irish elections, Unionists cannot wash their hands of Republican success south of the border where they could emerge as a party of government as well as in Northern Ireland.
“It is long past the point when Unionists should have woken up to the moral evil and political foolishness of sharing power with the IRA’s political wing. Today’s comments by Drew Harris are a reminder of what the right thing to do in relation to sharing power with Sinn Fein is. Will short term political expediency once again trump morality and plain common sense?”