Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“It is beyond troubling that 36 Republicans who received OTR letters from Her Majesty’s Government are linked to 136 incidents.
“How could the status of criminals linked to such a large number of offences suddenly change so they were no longer wanted by the police?
“The collapse of the Hyde Park bombing case rightly caused outrage. Unionists should recall that at the time the DUP made the rescinding of the letters and the publication of the names of those in receipt of OTR letters and the crimes of which they were suspected a condition of maintaining their coalition with Sinn Fein/IRA.
“Current First Minister Arlene Foster herself said that failure to rescind the letters would be a resigning matter.
“Now the crisis has passed out of many of the headlines and the DUP/Sinn Fein coalition continues on its merry way. In fact, the DUP are closer to Sinn Fein than they ever have been before – this in spite of the fact that we have had a report which told us that the IRA Army Council not only continues to exist but oversees Sinn Fein!
“The scandal of OTR letters is a matter which the DUP may pay lip service to but their actions – or rather lack thereof – speak volumes about how seriously they view the matter.”