Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has played down fears that senior Sinn Féin figures are facing assassination, even though Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has accepted that a new threat exists.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday, Mr Ahern said there "was no doubt" that dissident republicans posed a credible threat to three leading Sinn Féin figures, believed to be Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly.
"We have been aware of that for some time. It would probably be better if it had not surfaced. The threats are being taken seriously by both governments," he said at University College Dublin.
The threats came from people "who do not want to see the resolution of intractable problems, and who are looking to see how they could destabilise the situation".
However, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Mr McDowell, speaking during an engagement in his Dublin South East constituency yesterday afternoon, said the Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, was "not aware" of any assassination threat emerging in this State.
"I spoke to the Garda Commissioner this morning on this subject and he's not aware of any particular risk in this State to any person in the Provisional movement. But if there is such a threat, I would say that it would be dealt with in the usual way."
While Mr McDowell did not deal with the likelihood that a new assassination threat existed against Mr Adams and other Sinn Féin figures from Northern-based dissidents, his choice of language is judged to be significant, particularly when linked to the fact that the Police Service of Northern Ireland also said it had no specific intelligence that a new threat existed.
"Well, what I can say is that the Sinn Féin leadership has stated to the Northern security authorities the view of a threat from some of their former colleagues in the Republican movement for their safety," said Mr McDowell.
"I regard the safety of every citizen, no matter what they had done in the past or what they are doing now, as equally valid in the eyes of the law, and whatever steps are necessary will be taken to ensure that there is adequate safety in this jurisdiction for people who are in any way at risk."
Mr Adams said the threat from dissidents and others was becoming more serious as the party opened up the debate on policing. The threat emanated from a "tiny number of disaffected former IRA people and elements of various micro-groups, including some members of the INLA".
DUP justice spokesman Ian Paisley jnr accused Sinn Féin of engaging in a pathetic "gambit for public sympathy that they are under threat from dissident republicans".
