The Irish and British governments have requested an ad hoc report from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) on the IRA, it was announced today.
The Department of Justice said that, following comments the IMC made about IRA structures in its 18th report, the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, and Secretary of State Shaun Woodward MP, have sought a fuller assessment of the completion of the transformation of the IRA.
The report is expected to be delivered by September 1st, 2008, the department added.
On May 1st, the IMC said it found no evidence to suggest that the IRA was involved in criminal and terrorist activities during the six-month review period.
It reported then: "We remained firmly of the view that PIRA was fully committed to pursuing the political path and that it would not be diverted from it. We did not think it was involved in terrorist or other illegal activity and we believed it had continued to instruct members to refrain from committing crime.Some members however had not fully moved on from the view that threats and social exclusion were an appropriate way of dealing with anti-social behaviour.
The IMC continued: "We do not believe that the organisation was involved in terrorism or in any preparatory activity for it during the six months under review. The leadership remained firmly committed to the political path and . . . we do not believe that it will be diverted from it. We do not think that the organisation itself was responsible for any shootings, assaults or intimidation, all of which would be contrary to its policy.
"We believe that there have been attempts to reduce the size of the organisation and to encourage members to report criminality to the police. We recognise that there are senior figures in the leadership who wish to turn the efforts of members towards the development of their own communities, but these aspirations have so far met with limited success."