The DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson has warned that if the IRA is linked to the £22 million Northern Bank robbery it would deliver a "lethal blow" to Sinn Féin's future involvement in the political process.
As the PSNI chief constable, Mr Hugh Orde, deliberates over whether he will this week state who he believes was responsible for the robbery, Mr Robinson yesterday said that Mr Orde must "come clean" about whether the IRA was involved.
Mr Orde will tomorrow brief the chairman and deputy chairman of the Policing Board, Sir Desmond Rea and Mr Denis Bradley, about the robbery. He is considering whether at an expected press conference afterwards he should say who he believes was behind the robbery, one of the biggest ever staged in Ireland or Britain.
The chief constable will later this month face tough questioning from a full meeting of the Policing Board about the PSNI's handling of the investigation, and also about whether more could have been done to avert the robbery.
Any linking of the IRA to the robbery by Mr Orde would trigger major political repercussions, a point that was reinforced by Mr Robinson yesterday.
"As speculation continues to mount about the role of the Provisional IRA in the biggest bank robbery ever, Hugh Orde must now tell us about the connections of any and all believed to be involved. Is it the political consequences that have silenced the chief constable?" he asked.
Mr Robinson said if the IRA staged the robbery then some Sinn Féin politicians involved in the recently failed political negotiations would have known about it. "Let no one be in any doubt, the consequences of mainstream republican participation in this colossal crime will be far reaching. The IRA could not have carried out a crime of the magnitude of the Northern Bank robbery without the sanction of its so-called army council," he said.
"Everyone knows that the army council contains within its ranks senior members of Sinn Féin.
"The planning and preparation of the heist would have coincided with the participation of some of those individuals in a talks process that was aimed at ending such activity for good.
"Such downright duplicity would not only call into question the commitment of republicans to the talks process but could not be ignored by the [ British] government," added Mr Robinson.
"Both the British and Irish governments must encourage all of the constitutional parties to move forward and leave behind those who appear incapable of committing themselves to exclusively peaceful means," he said.