Ulster Unionist MP Tom Elliott has rejected criticism of MI5 by Sinn Fein Minister John O’Dowd who claimed that dissident republicans and the security services were ‘conflict junkies.’
Tom Elliott MP said:
“I find John O`Dowd`s comments quite bizarre given his own links to dissident republicans. This is the same John O`Dowd who in the past escorted a dissident republican prisoner who was given day release to attend a funeral. Rather than face criticism, MI5 should be commended for the sterling work they do. Dissident republican groups have been heavily penetrated and disrupted by the security services, protecting the law abiding majority in Northern Ireland and beyond, but we can`t let our guard down. They need our full support in bringing terrorists to justice.
“To some extent I am not really that surprised by John O`Dowd`s comments given the leading role played by MI5 and the security services in general, in ensuring the abject failure of the Provisional IRA`s terrorist campaign to blast us all into a United Ireland. The defeat of the IRA demonstrates the effectiveness of MI5 in combating terrorists.
“Given that the security services infiltrated the republican movement to such an extent that it has been estimated by some sources that at least half of all top IRA terrorists were working for the security services, on the balance of probabilities, some of those same agents may well be leading lights in the current mainstream republican leadership. They might even be sitting in the Assembly. That`s the uncomfortable truth for John O`Dowd and one he dare not admit.”