First Minister Michelle O'Neill failed to address "elephant in the room" during an assembly debate on paramilitarism today after claims that her party is still overseen by the IRA Army Council.

The exchanges came during a debate on a SDLP motion calling on her - and the Deputy First Minister - to introduce a review of paramilitarism into the programme for government.

The motion came after several weeks of intense public scrutiny about DUP Ministers Paul Givan and Gordon Lyons meeting the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), which represents three terror groups.

At the end of the debate, MLAs unanimously agreed that terror groups are bad and that the government should stop them; the motion was passed unanimously.

However there was zero reaction when TUV MLA Timothy Gaston raised the 2015 NIO report which highlighted that IRA members still believe the PIRA Army Council ‘oversees both PIRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy’.

During the debate UUP MLA Doug Beattie commended the community work of some former paramilities but said ministers’ only interaction with "structured" groups should be "to persuade them to leave the stage".

But he added: "The provisional IRA army Council is not the military wing of Sinn Fein," he said.

"Sinn Fein is the political wing of the provisional IRA Army Council, and that in itself, is an insidious element of our politics here in Northern Ireland. And let's not forget Sinn Fein members went to Maghaberry in 2016 to meet dissidents and promote their aims. This Cold War standoff by those who lead our government is going to continue and stop society moving forward."

placeholder image — First Minister Michelle O'Neill speaking during the assembly debate in which it was claimed that 'the elephant in the room' was the ongoing role of the IRA Army Council in Northern Ireland politics.

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston added: "I feel the need to remind the House that if we are going to talk about the ongoing presence of paramilitary organisations, we need to address the elephant in the room, which is the IRA army council that oversees Sinn Féin."

He reminded the house that in 2015 the NIO published a report on paramilitary groups, commissioned in the aftermath of "the Provisional IRA murder of Kevin McGuigan".

"It made clear that the IRA retained an army council, which, members believed, oversaw both the PIRA and Sinn Féin with an overarching strategy, retained departments with specific responsibilities and still had weapons that had not been decommissioned."

He then asked: "Where is the democratic mandate of the army council that oversees the lead party of government?"

The MLA noted that in 2020 the PSNI reconfirmed that it still believes the IRA oversees Sinn Féin, a view echoed by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

"The House is in no position to lecture on the harm of paramilitarism when its very existence is evidence that, for some, violence pays," he added.

Responding to the debate, First Minister Michelle O'Neill was given 15 minutes to speak, during which time she condemned the criminality of paramilitaries and outlined what is being done to stop them.

However at no time did she acknowledge the grave allegations made by Mr Beattie or Mr Gaston about the IRA Army Council continuing to oversee her party.

She said: "As other Members have indicated, the fact that we are having this conversation more than 26 years after our peace agreement is unbelievable and underlines the fact that more needs to be done to bring an end to the scourge of paramilitarism.”

:: In June the PSNI told the News Letter that it stands over a 2015 assessment of paramilitary groups published by the Northern Ireland Office, which found that all terror groups active at the time of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) are still active.

The report found that the IRA - while committed to the political process - is still involved in "isolated incidents of violence, including murder" gathering intelligence; engaged in organised crime, including large scale smuggling; gathering intelligence on state agents and storing weapons.

It also concluded that PIRA members still believe the PIRA Army Council "oversees both PIRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy".

After standing down as Chief Constable, George Hamilton told the Nolan Show in 2022 that he believed the murder of Kevin McGuigan in 2015 was “sanctioned at senior levels” of the IRA.

The IRA has reportedly carried out 26 murders since the GFA, including those of Kevin McGuigan (2015), Paul Quinn (2007), Denis Donaldson and Robert McCartney (both 2005) and Eamon Collins (1999).