Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“However it is dressed up and whatever spin is deployed the words of the PSNI yesterday could not have been clearer. “The Provisional IRA were involved in this murder.” Anyone who cannot understand that clearly has a political interest in not understanding it.
“Put simply, the IRA exists. They have not decommissioned all their weapons. They have committed murder on the streets of our capital city.
“That being the case the DUP and UUP partner the political wing of a murderous terrorist organisation in government.
“In essence what the DUP and UUP are asking is – were the IRA stupid enough to leave a clear trail of evidence which allows them to say definitively that the IRA ordered the murdered?
“Are they looking for a signed note from P O’Neill ordering the murder or a news conference from Connolly House at which responsibility is claimed?
“It’s a nonsense. They haven’t gone away you know. But it is already clear that pro-Agreement Unionism is prepared again put their Stormont salaries above justice.”