The Ulster Unionist Peer Lord Empey has demanded the Government raise the allegations of a Garda agent operating at the head of the IRA with the Dublin Government, following the NIO’s pathetic response to two questions he tabled.

Lord Empey said:

“When allegations were recently made in the Dail by a Fianna Fail TD – Sean Haughey, the son of the former Taoiseach Charles Haughey - that the Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA at the outbreak of the Troubles had been a Garda agent, I immediately submitted questions to the Government.

“These allegations are so far reaching in their implications that the answer – and I use that term very loosely indeed – has left me shocked.

“In true NIO fashion, I am told, “the Government have held no discussions with the Irish Government on this matter. The Government have made no assessment of these claims at this time.”

“As I have stated before, if the claims are true then it places a whole new slant on the early period of the Troubles and the growth of the Provisional IRA. Questions are obviously raised as to what Dublin knew, what role it played and how many innocent lives may have been lost because of the activities of a Garda agent at the head of the Provisional IRA.

“I can quite understand how certain vested interests - not least Dublin – might want this story to drop and for the media not to pay any attention, but the UK Government cannot and will not be allowed to simply dismiss credible claims and very legitimate concerns.  The NIO may not want to rock the boat and seek to preserve its relationship with Dublin over the interest of the thousands of innocent victims of the IRA, but the IRA’s victims deserve to have these allegations forensically explored. The very least the British Government can do, is to make an assessment and raise this issue with the Dublin Government as matter of extreme urgency.”