Today the DUP and Sinn Fein will come face to face in the first of a series of meetings aimed at breaking the political impasse over the devolution of policing and justice powers to the power-sharing administration.

The meeting comes in the wake of a report from the Independent Monitoring Commission into the current state of the IRA and, in particular, the status of the Army Council.

The DUP insists that the Army Council will have to cease to exist before the party will agree to the devolution of policing and justice powers. It argues that complete dismantling of all IRA structures is required to provide the necessary community confidence to allow the transfer of powers from Westminster.

The IMC report did not conclusively state that the Army Council had been disbanded. Instead it said that the IRA leadership is “no longer operational or functional”. In its carefully worded statement the IMC said that the Provos’ “military departments” have ceased to function and have been disbanded.

Effectively the IRA, as a militant republican organisation, is being allowed to wither away and, in the opinion of the IMC, it does not present a threat to peace or democratic politics. Indeed, the IMC says that the Provos former terrorist capability has been lost to the extent that it could not be resurrected. Any new militant republican grouping would have to start afresh with new leaders and a new generation of active members.

That is undoubtedly the IMC’s strongest report to date on the current state of the IRA and its intentions. It is convinced that the Provisional movement

is exclusively set on a political path through Sinn Fein and that former senior IRA activists have joined Sinn Fein to further its political programme. It accepts Sinn Fein’s often-repeated comments that the war is over and that there is no going back to violence.

Is that enough to satisfy the DUP and to convince the broad unionist community of the political bona fides of Sinn Fein? Given the historic emnity between the parties, it is understandable that the DUP wants to have the IRA totally disbanded and off the scene. They know that some DUP supporters are still uneasy with sharing power with republicans and they

remember how the previous administration fell because republicans could not satisfy unionists of their peaceful intent.

According to the IMC, there is little likelihood of any formal announcement by either the IRA Army Council or Sinn Fein that all, or any, parts of the former terrorist machine have been disbanded. Instead it will be allowed to continue to wither. As it stands, it seems to be redundant.

To most observers the IMC statement should provide sufficient confidence to allow the parties to begin earnest negotiations around the current obstacles. The devolution of policing and justice powers is the final, and most important, part of the restoration of power-sharing government. It is right that the proper conditions to allow devolution of the powers should exist. Only intense talks between Sinn Fein and the DUP will result in the final pieces of the jigsaw being put in place — the disbandment of the Army Council, paving the way for the devolution of policing and justice powers.