Statement by TUV MLA Timothy Gaston:
“Today’s statement by the PSNI broadcast on the Nolan Show that the security service assessment of the role and status of the PIRA and its Army Council hasn’t changed does not come as a surprise to TUV. However, it is worth remembering that the Ministerial Pledge of Office which all members of the Executive are required to take says they “commitment to non-violence and exclusively peaceful and democratic means…, to challenge paramilitary attempts to control communities [and] to support those who are determined to make the transition away from paramilitarism”.
“It is incompatible with democracy that a party controlled by the PIRA Army Council should be leading the government of Northern Ireland. Those who partner them should be ashamed. I think particularly of the DUP who, in 2007, signed up to Stormont on the basis of the pledge in their manifesto:
“The DUP holds to its long standing position that there can only be an agreement involving Sinn Fein when there has been delivery by the republican movement, tested and proved over a credible period, in terms of support for the PSNI, the Courts and the rule of law, a complete end to paramilitary and criminal activity and the removal of terrorist structures.”
“For most of the past 17 years the DUP have, as they do today, partnered Sinn Fein while the IRA Army Council continues to have a key role in the organisation.
“While others shrug their shoulders and claim there is nothing they can do about it, TUV is determined to make Stormont face up to these issues and hold those who, for the sake of office, choose to ignore the fact that their partners in government continue to be controlled by an illegal terrorist organisation responsible for the best part of 2,000 murders.
“To that end, I have tabled both an urgent oral question to the Justice Minister and a Matter of the Day for Monday. It is over to the speaker if time will be set aside for these matters. I trust he will regard them as sufficiently serious.”