Taoiseach welcomes 'Stormontgate' briefing

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has called for more information on Northern Ireland spying allegations to be shared with the public.

The chief constable of the PSNI, Sir Hugh Orde held a one-hour security briefing in Dublin with Mr Ahern, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy.

It was the first face-to-face meeting between Sir Hugh and the Government since the dramatic dropping of charges in an alleged IRA spy scandal at Stormont which destroyed power-sharing between unionists and republicans in 2002.

Last week, it also emerged that Sinn Féin aide Denis Donaldson was working as a British agent within the party for more than 20 years.

Mr Ahern said Sir Hugh's visit to Dublin was an indication of the seriousness that attached to the case, but said that the briefing and the subsequent exchanges between the sides were confidential and it would not be appropriate to go into detail. However, he urged that the "maximum possible information be shared with the public".

Sir Hugh was expected to confirm that records of conversations Mr Ahern had with British prime minister Tony Blair were among documents recovered by detectives investigating an alleged spying operation at Stormont.

Sir Hugh was greeted at the gates of Government buildings by a number of Sinn Féin protesters, who were gathered outside the gates to register their opposition to what they termed "political policing" in the North.

A scuffle broke out between the protesters and gardaí as Sir Hugh arrived at Merrion Square.

Outside the gates, Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald said political policing had to end.

"Confidence has to be rebuilt in the process," she said. "We need to see political policing has ceased."

This was one of a number of protests Sinn Féin had planned around the country, with other demonstrations taking place in Belfast, Derry and Cork.

Speaking at a protest outside PSNI headquarters at Knock Road in Belfast, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said he had told British prime minister Tony Blair that there was an element of the British policing and intelligence system that was opposed to the peace process, and that this was at the core of the current crisis.

"Mr Blair bears the sole responsibility for tackling this problem," he said. "Ending political policing and the negative activities of British agencies is his responsibility."

It emerged on Friday that one of those arrested and later acquitted of organising a republican spy ring in Stormont, Denis Donaldson, was an agent of British intelligence. The head of administration for Sinn Féin was expelled from the party when it emerged he was a spy.

Sinn Féin say the episode proves that the spy ring allegation was made up in order to bring down the North's political institutions, but the Northern Ireland Office and the police insist a spy ring did exist.

Sir Hugh said hundreds of pages of documents recovered by police in raids in October 2002 included what the PSNI calls targeting information.

"This covers details of police officers and prison officers. Also there were notes of conversations between Britain and the United States, notes on actual conversations - the actual official record of those conversations between the president [of the US] and the prime minister and the Taoiseach and the prime minister."

He said the documents included notes on "other political parties", though not on Sinn Féin.

Denying republican allegations that the Stormont raids were part of a wider political conspiracy designed to bring down a legitimate government, Sir Hugh added: "We would have been a lot more sophisticated than that. We wouldn't have left [the documents] under someone's bed. We would have put them somewhere far more damaging."

Agreeing with the dropping of charges against Mr Donaldson, Ciarán Kearney and William Mackessy, Sir Hugh said the Director of the Public Prosecutions Service had no option other than to retract the case against the three men originally charged in connection with the alleged Stormont spying affair.

"There comes a point when the public interest in law must succeed over a desire to prosecute an individual," he said.

Additional Reporting: PA