Garda Commissioner – 'IRA military structures are disbanded'

GARDA Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan has reiterated her statement that the IRA's military structures no longer exist.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of a graduation ceremony for new Garda officers in Templemore, she told reporters:

"Our assessment is consistent with the Independent Monitoring Commission's report in 2011 that the military structures of the IRA have been disbanded."

The Garda Commissioner added that some former IRA members may have become involved in crime.

Northern Sound radio reports the Commissioner as saying the Garda "would be taking action if they had any hard facts or evidence to say the IRA existed".

Her comments come during an ongoing crisis in the North where unionist parties have demanded the adjournment of the Assembly over claims that the IRA still exists, allegations which have been emphatically rejected by Sinn Féin.

Recently, the Garda Commissioner was rounded on by some elements of the media after she wrote to Sinn Féin Justice spokesperson Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD in February rubbishing stories by Irish Independent journalist Jim Cusack in which he claimed the IRA was still active and involved in criminality.