THE IRISH and British governments will not take the “foot off the pedal” in providing adequate resources to tackle the dissident republican paramilitary threat regardless of the economic difficulties, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has pledged.
Mr Ahern, who was in Belfast yesterday for a seminar on cross-Border organised crime, heard PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Judith Gillespie report that dissidents were continually improving their capabilities.
She said that the range of techniques the dissidents were developing was causing serious anxiety. “We have seen an increase in technical expertise and the successful detonation of improvised explosive devices,” she said.
“And we have also seen groups working more closely together than we have seen in the past and that’s also of serious concern,” she added.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said he agreed with the MI5 assessment that raised the level of the threat of dissidents attacking Britain from moderate to substantial.
He described the dissidents as a “small group of focused people” but said the police and intelligence services were working to clamp down on them, and that was demonstrated by the arrests this year of over 50 people in the South, with 22 before the courts on dissident charges.
“We are actively targeting them and we are actively engaged in sharing information, sharing intelligence and working closely with our colleagues in Northern Ireland to prevent and stop a small group of people whose ideals and motives are not what one would require in peaceful communities,” said Mr Murphy. Mr Ahern said there would be no let-up in the British-Irish determination to confront the dissident danger, adding that many of the groups were heavily engaged in cross-Border crime. “It is quite obvious that many of those involved in these organisations are clearly motivated by making a livelihood from crime. They are profiteers, not patriots,” he said.
He said the Garda and the Government stood shoulder to shoulder with those resisting the dissidents and that there would be no lifting the “foot off the pedal” in terms of providing resources to combat the dissidents.
“We will all play our part – however long it takes, whatever it takes in bringing that threat to an end,” said Mr Ahern.
The seminar at the La Mon Hotel in east Belfast addressed alcohol, fuel and cigarette smuggling, drug dealing, money laundering, the illegal dumping of waste and human trafficking.
The North’s Minister for Justice David Ford said that the level of co-operation between all law enforcement agencies on both sides of the Border was never better. “That is particularly evident with the recent successes against those involved in human trafficking,” he said.
“Criminals who think they can exploit the Border need to know that North-South co-operation will only be further strengthened as we move forward – at a policing and political level. We will continue to disrupt their activities and pursue them through the courts for criminal convictions and to strip them of their assets,” added Mr Ford.