The focus of the continuing police search for the £22 million taken in the Christmas week Northern Bank robbery in Belfast continues to be nationalist west Belfast.
It emerged that money thought to be part of the haul was legitimately in circulation.
Several premises in west Belfast and some in north Belfast were searched by the PSNI in the last few days, indicating that the IRA or other republican organisations are the prime suspects at this stage for the bank raid which yielded at least £22 million in cash.
The PSNI said that so far no money has been recovered and no one has been arrested or charged in connection with Ireland's biggest robbery, which is also reputed to be one of the biggest bank robberies in the world.
There were indications of a possible breakthrough last week when it was confirmed that the serial numbers of two Northern Bank £20 notes used at the Dundonald International Ice Bowl in east Belfast corresponded with the serial numbers for the stolen money released by the Northern Bank.
This generated considerable publicity but with some embarrassment, the bank and police later had to admit that two £20 notes were not from the robbery even though they were listed by the bank as part of the haul.
In fact as many as 50,000 £20 notes listed as stolen may be legitimately held by the public.
The Northern Bank is expected to decide shortly whether to withdraw all its notes from circulation in order to make the Northern Bank notes in the haul, which comprise the bulk of the stolen money, unusable by the robbers.
The PSNI has confirmed that the IRA is one of the five main suspects for the robbery. Other paramilitary and organised crime gangs are also suspected. While some unionist politicians have blamed the IRA, the police have refused to be so definitive in apportioning responsibility.
The fact that the searches were so concentrated in west Belfast last week, however, appears to indicate that at this stage the main finger of suspicion is directed at the IRA or other republican groups.
As well as general searches, police also raided two major business and shopping complexes in west Belfast last week and carried out a thorough search of a new state-of-the-art recycling and refuse centre off Kennedy Way in west Belfast.
Nothing relating to the robbery was found.
Republicans have claimed that the searches are politically motivated. On Christmas Eve, the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the "heavy-handed and aggressive manner" in which the raids were carried out was "deliberately intended to further destabilise the political situation".
Sinn Féin figures in west Belfast have repeated this line since Christmas and insisted that they accept the statement from an IRA source shortly after the robbery that the organisation was not involved.
If evidence is found to link the IRA to the robbery then there appears little likelihood of a political deal to restore devolution before the British general election, expected in May.
