SENIOR NORTHERN politicians and trade union leaders have condemned a Continuity IRA threat against civil servants in Co Fermanagh.
The CIRA warned it would target customs officers and staff from the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) who deal with the PSNI.
Last month two PSNI members suffered minor injuries near Roslea in Co Fermanagh in a landmine attack by the CIRA. The threat against the civil servants was read out by a masked man at a dissident republican rally in Mullan, Co Cavan, on Saturday.
The North's DUP Environment Minister Sammy Wilson condemned the threat, saying that DVA staff, who come under his responsibility, were actively involved in road safety and work with both the PSNI and the Garda.
"Given our current road safety record and the high percentage of the goods and bus fleet operating with serious defects, I would have thought that staff would have been actively supported rather than targeted," he said. "This threat is simply an attack on road safety DVA staff who are ordinary people going about their work and it therefore puts the whole community at risk," added Mr Wilson.
DUP Economy Minister and local Assembly member Arlene Foster said it was "important that thugs and criminals such as those in the Continuity IRA are rejected by those within their own community. They have no place in society, and such threats have no place in a more peaceful Northern Ireland."
General secretary of the public service union NIPSA John Corey said he strongly condemned "any threats from paramilitary organisations against public service staff who impartially serve all sections of the community".
