Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will report briefly on yesterday's meeting. The meeting was divided into two sections. One was a briefing by Commissioner Conroy on his assessment, with Hugh Orde, Chief Constable of the PSNI. Both confirmed their positions, that is, Hugh Orde's public statement and the advice given to us by Commissioner Conroy. They believe that a number of operations which took place during 2004, not just the Northern Bank robbery, were the work of the Provisional IRA and would have had the sanction of the army council and be known to the political leadership. That was made clear without equivocation and unambiguously.

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