Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern today said the threat from dissident republicans is as great as it was during the Troubles.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio this afternoon, Mr Ahern said the groups were trying to escalate events in the North.
"I don't think it's so much that their support is growing. The information we have is that while it used to be that these groups, particularly the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, were separate groups there seems to be an effort in recent months to bring them closer together; there seems to be cross-fertlisation," he said.
"It is a more worrying trend, because clearly their capability is growing."
Mr Ahern said there had been 13 major events since last September.
A police station was attacked in Craigavon last night, when a suspected mortar bomb was fired at the building. On Monday, a car bomb exploded outside Newry courthouse in Co Down. No one was injured in either attack.
Dissidents also claimed responsibility for the murder of a man in Co Derry earlier this week. The body of Kieran Doherty was found dumped on the roadside outside Derry city.
The attacks are just the latest in a wave of incidents. Last week, there was a failed mortar bomb attack at a police station in the village of Keady, Co Armagh. Dissidents killed two British soldiers at Massereene army barracks, Co Antrim last March and two days later shot dead police constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, Co Armagh as he answered a call for help.
In January this year a Catholic police officer was seriously injured when a booby trap bomb exploded under his car in Co Antrim while a number of police stations have been shot at in recent weeks.
He said the groups were trying to provoke the British authorities into responding by escalating the security threat level.
"What they are really at is to try and bring back troops onto the streets in Northern Ireland and to destabilise the efforts by the political parties to bring final peace to the North," he said.
"The threat here on this island is as dangerous as it was at any time during the Troubles."
