PSNI accused of 'throwing up dust' after it says statement on IRA's status was 'misconstrued' - but won't say how
The PSNI has been accused of “obfuscating” over its position – set out just four days ago – on the role of the illegal IRA Army Council in the strategy of Northern Ireland’s lead party of government.
On Friday, police told the BBC’s Nolan Show that a 2015 report on paramilitary groups still stands. That assessment said IRA members believe that the Provisional IRA’s illegal army council – which ordered hundreds of murders – still oversees Sinn Fein’s strategy.
The security document also said the IRA still has weapons and conducts counterintelligence operations – but is committed to obtaining a united Ireland “by political means”.
UUP MLA Doug Beattie says MI5 are collating and analysing information on PIRA and other terrorist groups on a “weekly if not daily basis”- and would inform police of any major changes – meaning the 2015 assessment still stands.
Sinn Fein says the IRA has gone away, a position that it also maintained in 2015 when the security report was commissioned in response to the alleged involvement of IRA members in the murder of Belfast man Kevin McGuigan.
Despite the clear statement on Friday that the 2015 assessment still stands – the Police Service of Northern Ireland have now confused the situation by claiming that the BBC misinterpreted its answer, but declining to explain how.
It has also not explicitly said the statement issued on Friday was incorrect.
According to the BBC, Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck signed off last week's statement which said that the status of the 2015 report on paramilitary groups, including the PIRA, had not changed.
That statement was in response to a specific request asking for a present day assessment of the structure, role and purpose of the Provisional IRA. The BBC Nolan Show reports that it sought further clarity on specific points in the 2015 assessment but was given the same answer. The programme also reports that the PSNI is now refusing to comment on questions about its current assessment of the PIRA.
The PSNI position on Friday was perhaps of little surprise. As recently as 2021, the force has said publicly that “nothing has changed” with regard to the 2015 judgement. Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie says that from 2018 until present he has been told by the PSNI that the 2015 assessment still stands.
The Upper Bann MLA told the News Letter: “That 2015 assessment, which is done on a rolling basis, says the the Provisional Army Council(PAC) are still involved criminality, storage of weapons, intelligence gathering and control of SF. PAC continues 9 years after it was first assessed. That’s 9 years has enhanced PAC capabilities.
“If SF are saying PIRA have gone for good contrary to the intelligence assessment then the question should be asked, has SF gone to the PSNI with the evidence they have to be able to make that statement.
“The existence of PAC and paramilitaries within our politics is an insidious and negative influence. It is important the Secretary of State releases the most recent assessment so we can hold the PSNI and other agencies to account and make decisions around continued engagement with other political parties. The public has a right to know who is influencing those who govern them”.
The claim issued by the PSNI on Saturday that its statement had been misconstrued – and their subsequent silence on how it was misconstrued – has raised serious questions for the force.
TUV leader Jim Allister told the Nolan Show that police are “obfuscating their own position”. The North Antrim MP said they are “trying to throw up dust so that nobody really knows what the position is. But they were very clear on Friday that the current position hasn’t changed from what it has been – and that’s in the context of ongoing monitoring.
“And we all know there’s ongoing monitoring, so of course they’re in a position to say whether or not the previous assessment still stands – and they’ve said it does, on the basis of ongoing monitoring.
“So it is pretty obvious that now there is, what seems to be like a political attempt, to diffuse that, by playing that down”.
The News Letter has asked the PSNI a series of questions on the matter, but it did not respond.