IRA disbandment would ease the huge pressures facing police fighting racketeering in Northern Ireland, Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed today.
As he announced the first cross-border organised crime assessment in Ireland, Mr Orde confirmed the Provisionals were still heavily involved in smuggling, fraud and other money-making schemes.
At the assessment, which was published jointly with the Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, Mr Orde condemned claims by both republican and loyalist paramilitaries that their heavy involvement in drug dealing, money-laundering and other rackets was part of any ideological campaign.
He insisted: "Let's forget this nonsense that people are trying to fight for some greater good. Let's look at them for exactly what they are, they are criminals who are parasites on the community and who are destroying communities."
The organised crime dossier centred on eight key areas of lucrative illegal activity on both sides of the border - money laundering and fraud, counterfeiting, drugs trafficking, oil, tobacco and alcohol fraud, vehicle and immigration crime.
At the launch conference near Belfast, Justice Minister Mr Michael McDowell castigated the IRA for lining their pockets through criminal enterprises.
He said: "While they continue to be an active paramilitary organisation, quite clearly they are involved in breaches of the criminal law.
Unionist demands for the IRA to halt their terror operation are central to attempts by the British and Irish governments to restore the power sharing executive in Belfast.
A deal to begin dismantling the organisation was believed to have been tabled during last week's peace summit at Leeds Castle, Kent, which failed to produce a political breakthrough.
Mr Orde accepted the move would lift some of the demands facing his officers.
He said: "Anything that suggests any organisation that is committing crime is going away is a very positive statement. . . . "I can focus on other criminal gangs that are committing crime so we can lock them up, and it will make people feel that Northern Ireland is a safer place," he said.
Mr Orde refused to reveal if he had any intelligence to suggest a further move on IRA weapons was imminent.
PA