The Ulster Unionist Party’s Policing spokesperson, Alan Chambers MLA, has called on the Government to ensure that the Police have all the resources they need to counter the very real threat posed by terrorism.   

Mr Chambers - who represents North Down and who served as a member of the RUC Reserve - said:

“The device found at the weekend near the Holy Cross Boys’ Primary School in Ardoyne in Belfast was clearly designed to kill police officers and has been described by Mark Lindsay, the Chair of the Police Federation, as ‘a deadly, anti-personnel-type weapon.’

“The fact that this disgraceful incident comes one month after an attempt was made to murder police officers in Strabane via a roadside bomb with a command wire attached, indicates that republican terrorists retain the capacity to construct fairly sophisticated explosive devices.

“One must also consider the gun attack on police officers at a petrol station on the Crumlin Road three months ago and the murders of Michael McGibbon in Ardoyne, and Prison Officer Adrian Ismay in east Belfast a year ago.

“The past two weekends have seen parades at a number of locations including Londonderry, Lurgan and Belfast in which support for continuing violence was clear amongst a section of republicanism.

“As a society we are 19 years along the road from the Belfast Agreement. There is simply no excuse or pretext for violence of any kind in the Northern Ireland of 2017. Those gangs who have access to illegal weaponry, who are prepared to use those weapons to terrorise the communities they claim to defend and to attack police officers, need to be taken on and closed down permanently.

“There must be no such thing as an ‘acceptable level of violence.’ If these groups are able to continue their activities, then sooner or later we will inevitably be confronted with more deaths, both civilian and security force. This is no time for budget cuts to front line policing. The Police and the security services must be given all the resources they require to defeat terrorism from whatever source it comes.”