The Ulster Unionist Party intends to "actively pursue" its demand that a tribunal of inquiry be set up to investigate the Arms Crisis of 1970 and the Irish government's role in the foundation of the Provisional IRA, a leading party member said last night.
Mr Reg Empey said a newly-formed Arms Crisis Committee would "push the issue" with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair. Key figures involved in the arms trial have already been approached for information.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, wrote to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, on Friday asking him to set up "a fully competent tribunal to investigate the events of the period August 1969 to May 1970".
The UUP committee also intends to gather what it claims is evidence of "the Irish State's complicity in the foundation of the Provisional IRA". Mr Empey said it was its belief that the government of the time pursued a policy to have IRA leaders with Marxist views removed, and supported dissidents to achieve this.
"The understanding was that the IRA would not get involved in the internal politics of the South," he said. The issue had been "a source of poison" over the years.
He said such a tribunal would be a quid pro quo for the Bloody Sunday inquiry, and that the arguments for each were similar because both centred on the activities of a state.