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Garda warn of dissident threat

Dissident republican groups continue to pose a serious threat, the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has warned.

Commissioner Murphy stressed that garda intelligence believes both the Continuity IRA (CIRA) and the Real IRA (RIRA) are operational and should not be underestimated.

Refusing to comment on the International Monitoring Commissions (IMC) findings that the IRA Army Council is still in existence but being allowed to "wither away", he stressed that the garda focus was now firmly on dissident republican groups and their ongoing activities.

The major concern was that such groups would attempt to destabilise the Northern Ireland peace process by any means available, he told a major conference in University College Cork (UCC) last week.

"My people and my members in crime and security are working with our colleagues in the PSNI and other sister agencies to ensure that the threat posed by dissident organisations is reduced and dealt with.

"I consider it (the threat) significant -- it is there significantly for some time and we are working on it as indeed are our colleagues in sister agencies," he said.

The commissioner said there was a very good working relationship with the PSNI and both police forces would continue to take the threat posed by dissident groups extremely seriously.

"The threat still remains from CIRA and RIRA," he said.

He stressed that the garda intelligence units would remain to the forefront of the battle against such dissident groups -- but he added that the garda position has also been strengthened by the development of elite special response units.

Two armed Regional Support Units (RSU) are now undergoing pilot deployment in Limerick and Cork as part of a programme to ease pressure on the Emergency Response Unit (ERU).

The units will have access to a fleet of high-powered vehicles, special body armour, high-powered weaponry and specialised firearms training.

Belfast Telegraph

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