Minister for Defence Simon Coveney has said the Government has adopted a “very cautious” approach to commenting on the murder of Kevin McGuigan in east Belfast.
The PSNI has linked Provisional IRA members to the shooting dead of Mr McGuigan on August 12th in what is believed to have been retaliation for the murder of Gerard “Jock” Davison in May.
“I think you’ve seen a very cautious response to what’s been said in the last day or so coming from Government,” Mr Coveney said on Sunday.
He said he had spoken to both Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan about the matter.
Mr Coveney referred to a briefing from the North’s Chief Constable George Hamilton on Saturday, which followed remarks by senior PSNI officer Det Supt Kevin Geddes.
“I think the part of the statement that’s of real concern is when he says that some current provisional IRA or former members continue to engage in a criminal activity and occasional violence in the interest of personal gain or personal agendas,” Mr Coveney told RTÉ’s This Week programme.
“The Government is very cautious here not to add to an already difficult situation. We want the PSNI to be free to conclude their investigations. And if there are serious questions to answer at the end of that investigation well then we’ll obviously want to hear them.”
Asked about the situation in the Republic, Mr Coveney said the IRA remained a proscribed organisation, “which means they’re an illegal organisation”.
If the gardaí had any evidence to suggest that the IRA’s structures and membership remained intact in the Republic, they would have to act on that and people would be arrested.
Mr Coveney said the Independent Monitoring Committee, the PSNI and an Garda Siochana were “all saying the same thing in terms of the existence of the IRA as a terrorist organisation”.
He said that while it had been disbanded or had gone away, members remained active in “non-terrorist types of crime”.
He said some of those previously part of the formal structures of the provisional IRA were still involved “in criminal activity, in gangs, in vigilante-type behaviour”.
