Paramilitarism is a “continuing threat” in Northern Ireland and there must be a “sustained focus” to end it, according to the latest Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) report.
Despite the existence of illegal loyalist and republican groups 25 years on from the Belfast Agreement, the commissioners also said they were “taken” by a conversation they had with an international expert who regarded the North’s paramilitarism as being in the ‘Last Mile’ in “terms of completion”.
“We fully recognise that this is a difficult last mile, and do not underestimate the scale of challenge involved. We are also mindful that the [expert] cautioned, however, that failure to close out work that needed to be done could prove costly in the long term if paramilitarism experiences a resurgence in the future because it wasn’t fully tackled in the present,” they said.
Published on Tuesday, the sixth annual IRC report warns that coercive control remains an “unacceptable feature of life” in communities under paramilitary influence with latest data revealing that 194 households were accepted as homeless last year due to intimidation.
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It refers to 2023 as a “mixed” in terms of paramilitarism as shootings and attacks were broadly in line with previous years.
However, the attempted murder of PSNI Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell by dissident republicans and a violent loyalist drug feud highlighted “how quickly situations can escalate”.
Concerns were also raised for the first time about the increase in child criminal exploitation, with commissioners pointing to “significant evidence” of how young people were “actively groomed” and taking “dangerous risks to perform a criminal act”.
Drugs were “central to the activities that young people were criminally exploited to engage in”, the report found.
The IRC was established in August 2017 by an international agreement between the British and Irish governments under the terms of the 2015 Fresh Start Agreement at Stormont.
Its remit is to report on progress towards ending paramilitarism.
“Paramilitarism represents a continuing threat to individuals and society and must continue to be given sufficient attention and focus to ensure that it becomes a thing entirely of the past,” the report states.
The commissioners repeated a key recommendation from last year’s report for a “transition” process which involved “direct engagement” with the paramilitary groups themselves to bring about disbandment.
Central to this process would be the appointment of an “independent person” to prepare the ground for a “possible process of engagement”.
Asked at a press conference in Belfast on Tuesday to outline the reasons for the delay in appointing the individual – who must be agreed by the UK and Irish governments – commissioner Tim O’Connor acknowledged that it was a “controversial proposal” but highlighted recent “positive” engagement with the two governments on the issue.
“We know there are very strongly held views so we’re under no illusions. We do recognise that in asking the governments to take on this proposal we are actually asking them to take a further risk...therefore it’s not surprising it’s taking a bit of time,” Mr O’Connor said.
[ NI paramilitaries ‘coerced young people with drug debts to riot for £80’Opens in new window ]
Fellow commissioner Monica McWilliams told reporters that the appointment of an independent person was an “intermediary step” to “scope out potential” for the groups to disband.
“The only way we’ll know is if the individual sits and engages with them directly to find out where their intention is – both on the republican side and loyalist side. A lot of the attention has been paid to the loyalist side.
“It is a risk but there are a number of things going forward and I would like to ask, ‘where do we want to be in five years’ time?’”
Commission members are John McBurney and Ms McWilliams – nominated by the Northern Ireland Executive – the Irish Government’s nominee Mr O’Connor, and Mitchell Reiss, nominated by the UK government.
They noted that the political deadlock of the past 20 months “has not helped”.
“There are no grounds for complacency. Rather, the need for a continued sustained focus on tackling and ending paramilitarism remains essential,” the report said.
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