Ulster Unionist member on the Policing Board, Ross Hussey MLA, has said the statement from the PSNI that members of the Provisional IRA cooperated with dissident republicans in the murder of Kevin McGuigan raises questions of PIRA involvement in other murders and attacks.

Mr Hussey said:

“The confirmation that PIRA members were involved in the killing proves that the organisation still exists and still has the ability to act with lethal effect. The fact that several individuals appear to have been involved in the murder, the fact that it appears to have been methodically planned and now the fact that the PSNI have confirmed that the Provisional IRA collaborated with other terrorist organisations all confirm that the organisation never fully disbanded and never fully surrendered its weapons. 

“Indeed confirmation that the PIRA has been working with dissident republicans – individuals who for over a decade now have been actively targeting our security forces and civilians - refutes mainstream republican claims to have been fully committed to the peace process.    

“For a number of years I have been growing increasingly convinced that the PIRA still existed. I have suggested that guns used in so-called dissident republican attacks were in fact were sourced from PIRA stock. I believe a number of PIRA Quartermasters refused to decommission their full cache of weapons. This is particularly true in the Strabane and Londonderry areas.

“In addition there has been evidence of training camps in Tyrone and there is no doubt the knowledge of the PIRA in bomb making and preparation of explosives has been freely shared in recent times. 

“Following the confirmation from the PSNI of PIRA involvement in this most recent murder, logic would suggest that there is still an IRA Army Council and a GHQ staff.

“Given this revelation I believe other PIRA murders and attacks in recent years cannot be ruled out. I am now calling for an urgent meeting of the Policing Board to be convened, and for a briefing from the PSNI on ballistics information from weapons recovered by the security forces over the past decade in order to begin determining whether the PIRA has been responsible for any other murders.”