Statement by TUV Strangford Assembly candidate Councillor Stephen Cooper:
“Today’s arrest has again reminded the people of Northern Ireland of the Paul Quinn case.
“It is worth recalling what the DUP’s Lord Morrow said about the murder during an Assembly debate on the devolution of policing and justice powers in 2008:
“I suspect that policing and justice powers will not be devolved this year, during the term of this Assembly and maybe not even in the lifetime of anyone in the Chamber today. People may question why I say that. The answer is simple; it is because I listen to and watch the antics of the Provos and Sinn Féin. They play a sort of fast-and-loose game. One day, they are great democrats, and the next day, they are street fighters who will cover up for, and give assistance to, those who carry out deadly deeds.
“How many Sinn Féin Members have, to date, gone to their local PSNI station and given all the information that they have about the brutal slaughter of Paul Quinn? Some of them, however, went and talked to the IRA.
“Who is in charge of security here? Is it the local Provos in south Armagh, who control that area with an iron fist? Or is it the local PSNI? One day, Sinn Féin says that it backs the police. The next day, Sinn Féin Members stand up, pontificate, and say that Paul Quinn was not murdered by the IRA.”
“Eight years on from Lord Morrow’s comments we know, because of a Government report, that the IRA retain their structures including an Army Council, retain weapons which should have been decommissioned and have committed murder as recently as a few months ago.
“Yet not only are the DUP in government with them but Lord Morrow is a member of the Executive alongside members of Sinn Fein – a party controlled by the Army Council!
“The Quinn arrest reminds us that the spectre of the IRA still haunts Northern Ireland politics – a fact which TUV alone is not prepared to ignore and sweep under the carpet.”