McDowell urged act on claims about Sinn Féin members

The Minister for Justice Mr McDowell has been urged to take action after he claimed senior Sinn Féin members sit on the Provisional IRA Army Council and that other party members are involved in criminal activity at Dublin Port.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said today he agreed with Mr McDowell that the Provisional IRA has been involved in criminality at Dublin Port but said he was not aware if Sinn Féin members were on the Provisional IRA Army Council.

Mr McDowell's comments drew an immediate angry response from Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, who called on the Minister to substantiate the claims.

"I am not going to stand by and listen to this rubbish from someone who calls himself an Irish Government Minister," Mr McGuinness said. "I hear him making other allegations and I say to him either put it up or shut it up.

"It's very well to make accusations, but it is a whole other thing to substantiate those allegations. I think Michael McDowell needs to remember that he is the Minister for Justice. He is not the Minister for Judges and he is certainly not the Minister for Juries."

In an interview this morning the Minister for Justice said: "The Provisional movement, its top organisational unit is the (IRA) Army Council which has senior Sinn Féin figures on it. And I believe it decides on the overall strategy.

"There are senior figures from Sinn Féin on the Army Council and you may take that for a fact. I am talking about household names . . . The Army Council of the IRA dictates the strategy for the whole Provisional movement . . . and it [Sinn Féin] takes its line from the Army Council", said Mr McDowell.

Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny called for action. "If the Minister for Justice has intelligence briefings that criminal activity organised by the IRA and involving senior Sinn Féin personnel goes on in this jurisdiction, then he has a constitutional duty to act on this or on any other similar activity that he is aware of."

He also called on the Minister to clarify his claims linking paramilitary activity and Sinn Féin.

"Minister McDowell says that senior Sinn Féin members serve on the Army Council of the Provisional IRA . . . Yet the Taoiseach does not seem to know any of this."

Mr Kenny said he had sought a Dáil debate on the issue on four separate occasions and would do so again this week.

During the same interview on RTE Radio, the Minister for Justice also repeated his analogy of Sinn Féin being like the Nazi party.

"A movement which embraces both violence and the ballot box at the same time is very analogous to the Nazis. I most certainly say that the provisional movement of which they are leading figures is having it both ways in relation to violence and crimes."

He said the Provisional movement, of which Sinn Féin was a part, had to make a "clear choice, politics or violence".