Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

There are reasons to believe the Provos are engaged in a process of consultation on how the entire movement, that is, the IRA and Sinn Féin, will address the new situation created by the political circumstances obtaining in Northern Ireland, the fact that they were discovered to be the masterminds and perpetrators of the Northern Bank robbery and the money laundering in the South and the involvement of their members in the murder of Robert McCartney. I believe those consultations are at an advanced stage and it is now a matter for the leadership of the Provisional movement to decide when they will announce an end to paramilitary activity, criminality, violence, the threat of violence and their reign of terror in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.

In terms of the other groups, Deputy O'Keeffe will be aware that they continue to attempt to get their act together. The Garda continues to have considerable success in breaking up their efforts and detecting their activities. With regard to freelance activities, there is some sporadic evidence that former paramilitaries are now turning to ordinary criminality as a lifestyle maintenance activity outside their paramilitary connections. Recently, a number of incidents have taken place in which these kinds of people, apparently acting for personal gain, have become involved.

See this speech in context