Northern Ireland needs a new oversight body to assess the threat of terrorists

The Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) is not providing the reports that we need.

The commission can point to its origins in the Fresh Start Agreement of late 2015. That deal resulted from political stalemate caused by a number of issues, including claimed IRA involvement in two murders earlier that year.

The IRC website says that its objective “is to carry out its functions with a view to supporting long term peace and stability ... stable and inclusive devolved government ... and promoting progress towards ending paramilitary activity”.

The IRC’s functions include reporting “on the implementation of the relevant measures to be progressed by the respective administrations ...” and making “recommendations to [Stormont] in order to inform future Programme for Government priorities and commitments”.

Reading such role specification, it is not hard to see why the IRC produces the reports that it does.

In 2018 it complained about problems caused by lack of devolution. But devolution was brought down by Sinn Fein for political reasons. That should not be a matter for the IRC.

Last year the IRC expressed fears about Brexit fuelling violence. Brexit is certainly controversial, but is a matter for politicians, governments and others to worry about.

This year the report talks about deprivation. But deprivation is a complex problem, the tackling of which should not be the concern of a body to monitor paramilitaries.

NI has thugs who beat people, who extort businesses and who target humans for murder (as convictions of terrorists last week showed). We need an overall view of such violence from a body that, if it strays into politics, does insofar as it impacts on terror, such as NI’s weak bail and sentencing policy.

What weapons do terrorists have? What other support? What risk do they pose? What security measures might constrain them? How best to seize their assets?

It is time for a new body with a new set of functions.

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