DUP urge Woodward to resign over IRA activity

A PSNI briefing has resulted in calls for the Northern Ireland Security Minister to resign.

In the briefing the PSNI's most senior detective, Sam Kinkaid, told the Policing Board that the IRA is still involved in organised crime.

At a closed meeting with the Board last night, Mr Kinkaid said that on the terrorism front, things were positive in terms of IRA inactivity, however on the criminal front, the IRA were still involved in organised crime.

The meeting was attended by the deputy director of the Assets Recovery Agency, Alan McQuillan, and Northern Ireland Security Minister, Shaun Woodward who recently stated that the IRA was no longer involved in organised criminal activity.

DUP and Policing Board member Ian Paisley Jnr, said that there was "astonishment" around the table as Mr Kinkaid made his statement, as they so blatantly contradicted Mr Woodward's previous comments.

He then called for the Security Minister to resign from his post.

Mr Paisley said: "The information which Shaun Woodward received was exactly the same as the Policing Board and from the same source yet the interpretation he has put on it is completely and unjustifiably different.

"When you have no confidence in a person's judgment there is only one place for them to go and that is away from here."

The Independent Monitoring Commission is due to make a report before the end January on the activity of the IRA, which the British government are hoping is given the all clear in order to attempt restore devolution.

The DUP have already stated this week that they will not engage in a power sharing administration with Sinn Fein until they have full proof that the IRA have stood down, however Mr Kinkaid's comments have enhanced the DUP's suspicions.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly described Mr Kinkaid's assessment as "the latest in a series of serious efforts by anti-republican elements to prevent progress in the political and peace process".

He added: "This is a last ditch effort from securocrats who have opposed political and policing change since the start of this process."

Mr Kelly predicted the DUP and others, who were against the democratic rights of citizens, would cling to these "spurious allegations."

(EF/SP)