Mr. Martin Callinan:

First, I will deal with the issue of the Ryan funeral. I want to assure Deputy Seán Kenny and everybody present that An Garda Síochána was very much prepared to deal with any eventuality that came our way on that occasion. Professional judgments were made on the day to avoid further injury and perhaps offer to the particular groupings of which the Deputy spoke the high moral ground with a victory based on Garda intervention, that is, use of force. We are very well equipped and we are conscious of the potential for these flash points, and I would dispel any notion to the contrary in case that is what is out there.

On the wider issue, I mentioned already to the committee the level of commitment from An Garda Síochána towards tackling, dismantling and disrupting elements within the dissident groupings. In September alone, we managed to tackle and arrest groupings in the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA - persons were designed on bringing firearms from this jurisdiction into the North for whatever reason, most likely an execution. Those issues have been in the media and I am at liberty to speak about them. What one does not hear about is the amount of unheralded work being done on a 24/7 basis between ourselves, the PSNI and the security service on the far side in terms of the dismantling activities of which I speak, and we have clearly been responsible for saving many lives. It is an absolute priority of ours dealing with these groupings.

As to whether we will ever be on top of them, let us hope we are but we do not always. We have seen that horrible death. Only a couple of weeks ago, I was before the Committee of Public Accounts expressing my condolences to the Black family, in the context of what happened the prison officer. We are working hand in glove with our colleagues in the PSNI. We have made considerable progress in that investigation and we have shared a great deal of information with our colleagues in the PSNI. I would be confident in the coming weeks that we will see further advancement in terms of that investigation. We work very hard with our colleagues to ensure that the type of carnage that has happened in the past, and, indeed, the horrible crimes in more recent times, are eliminated in so far as we possibly can.