Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 303: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the Real IRA is a proscribed organisation under Irish law; if not, the steps being taken to address this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16608/04]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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Section 18 of the Offences against the State Act 1939 provides, inter alia, that any organisation which raises or maintains or attempts to raise or maintain a military or armed force in contravention of the Constitution shall be an unlawful organisation. Section 19 of the 1939 Act provides that it shall be lawful for the Government by order to declare that such an organisation is an unlawful organisation and ought in the public interest to be suppressed.

One of two such orders made to date is the Unlawful Organisation (Suppression) Order 1939, which suppresses the organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, also the IRA and Óglaigh na hÉireann.

It has been held by the courts that labels such as "official", "provisional" or "real" are irrelevant in considering whether a particular person or group of persons are within the ambit of the 1939 order, that is, whether they belong to an organisation which styles itself the Irish Republican Army, IRA or Óglaigh na hÉireann.