A TUV delegation consisting of party leader Jim Allister, Councillor Stephen Cooper and press officer Samuel Morrison today met the Independent Reporting Commission on foot of their report on paramilitaries published last month.
Speaking after the meeting, Jim Allister said:
“TUV made clear to the IRC that in our view it is a body established merely to ease pressure on the process after yet another PIRA murder. That is illustrated by the fact that their report concerns itself with the difficulties faced by convicted terrorists in bringing their grandchildren to Disneyland because they struggle to obtain US visas yet it provides no insight into the continuing role of the PIRA Army Council.
“The context in which the IRC was created was a Paramilitary Assessment from the Government which stated that the PIRA:
• Retained an “Army Council” which members believed oversaw both the PIRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy;
• Retained “departments” with specific responsibilities and
• Still had weapons which had not been decommissioned.
Yet the IRC members, being disciples of the process, have nothing to say about any of that.
“Rather than confronting the scourge of paramilitaries the IRC is intent on sanitising paramilitaries.
“When questioned on the lack of comment on the PIRA within their last report one of the Commissioners is reported as telling the press that “there are those in power who believe the focus should be elsewhere”. In today’s meeting we saw little evidence to suggest that the IRC is not happy to play along with keeping the focus elsewhere.”