A former member of the defunct Northern Ireland watchdog that monitored whether paramilitaries adhered to the peace process has said it is "not unreasonable" to set up a similar body to assess alleged IRA activity.

Dick Kerr, a member of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which assessed the IRA's commitment to peace from 2004 to 2011, said there was a role for an independent group to resolve whether the IRA or former members acting on their own were involved in killings.

Political crisis

Mr Kerr (79), a former deputy director of the CIA, was speaking to

The Irish Times

as Northern Ireland faces its worst political crisis in years. Unionist parties are threatening to collapse the powersharing Stormont government over the alleged activity of the Provisional IRA.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has said the Provisional IRA still exists and that some of its members were involved in the killing of former IRA man Kevin McGuigan in east Belfast this month, but that the killing was not sanctioned by the organisation.

Mr Kerr has mixed views on whether the IMC was wound up prematurely in 2011.

It gave its final assessment in its 25th report that the IRA was dormant and committed to politics, not violence. “[The IMC] could have been continued a little longer to reassure people,” he said. “It may have run its course too.”He said the IRA “still had to be in existence in some ways to shut it down”.

Most members “went off and did other things” – some went into politics, some went into crime, he said.

An independent group rather than the police – who “have their own interests and are not fully trusted” – might be better placed to say whether activity is led by the IRA or individuals acting alone.