COMMITTEE TO WRITE TO JUSTICE MINISTER OVER RTE FEATURE ON IRA - KENNY

Posted on November 12, 2014 5:55 PM   |   Permanent Link   

Dublin Bay North Labour TD and member of the Oireachtas Justice Committee, Deputy Sean Kenny, has said that the Justice Committee is to write to the Minister for Justice and ask her views on a recent RTE feature, which highlighted ongoing criminality by the Provisional IRA and other dissident organisations.

Deputy Kenny commented: "Last week the Today with Sean O'Rourke programme featured a panel of experts discussing criminal activity in the border region. During the course of this discussion, it was stated that the Provisional IRA continues to operate a vast criminal network of up to €40 million.

"I was struck by the certainty with which the experts on the RTE programme asserted that these criminals assert an influence within and on the policies of Sinn Fein and I think that it is incumbent on that party to account for their knowledge of these activities.

"Diesel laundering, VAT fraud, agri-crime, property purchases from the proceeds of crime, and drugs were all cited as part of the activities of the Provisional IRA from their base in the border region. We are often told that the IRA is no more, but the experts were clear in their view that the IRA continues to exist and exerts a considerable influence within Sinn Fein.

"Given the significance of this discussion, I sought to have the issue of IRA and dissident criminality discussed by the Oireachtas Justice Committee. Accordingly, I raised the matter by writing to the Chair of the Committee, David Stanton TD, and further raised the issue at this afternoon's meeting.

"The members of the Justice Committee have now decided that as a first step, the committee will write to the Minister for Justice seeking her view and the views of her department, on the assertions made in the programme, and the role our Committee can play in supporting the efforts to combat crime."