There was a reduction in IRA activity from March to October this year although all Northern paramilitaries continued to be involved in violence and criminality, according to the third report of the Independent Monitoring Commission.
The IMC said yesterday that while the main loyalist paramilitaries continued to be involved in murder and so-called punishment beatings and shootings the IRA killed no one this year and there was a fall in the incidence of IRA "punishment" attacks.
The IMC said four people were killed in security-related violence this year. Two were victims of the UVF. Another may also have been killed by loyalists, possibly the UDA, while republicans, possibly the INLA, may have carried out the fourth killing.
"PIRA has committed no murders and has engaged in a lower level of violence than in the preceding period, committing fewer paramilitary shootings and assaults," the IMC reported.
But it saw no signs of the organisation scaling down its capability. It said the IRA was continuing to recruit, although in small numbers, and gather intelligence.
The IMC blamed the IRA for a multi-million pound robbery of goods from the Makro store in Dunmurry, outside Belfast, in May and said it was "engaged in significant amounts of smuggling".
"In the South of Ireland certain of the organised (IRA) criminal activity seems to have been closed down, and we have found no recent evidence of violent paramilitary activity," it added.
"We conclude that since our last report [ in April] there is no fundamental change in the capacity of the organisation or its maintenance of a state of preparedness, but we also find no evidence of activity that might presage a return to a paramilitary campaign," the IMC stated.
The commission reported that the UVF, the Red Hand Commando, the UDA, the LVF, the INLA, the Real IRA and Continuity IRA were all engaged in violence and organised crime. It also referred to UVF racist attacks and some "vicious" UDA sectarian attacks.
Sinn Féin said supporters of the Belfast Agreement could not "pander to the IMC and allow it to exert a negative influence" over the peace process. "Reports produced by the IMC are based solely on material provided by the securocrats within the Special Branch, MI5 and British Military Intelligence. All of these organisations are opposed to the peace process and opposed to the Good Friday agreement," said the party's policing spokesman Mr Gerry Kelly.
Mr Mark Durkan, the SDLP leader, countered saying there was no such thing as an acceptable level of paramilitary activity.
"Sinn Féin in their predictable, dismissive attacks are trying to ignore the facts of what the IMC is reporting onThey are neither figments of the IMC's imaginations or other peoples briefings."
Mr Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the UVF, said some findings were predictable and the IMC did not offer a strategy to encourage paramilitary groups to stop illegal activities.
Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey said the IMC was the brainchild of his party and those who "slated [ it] as a toothless and a meaningless body" were now fully using its findings to assess their own political position.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said: "At a time when we are being told that it is the DUP who are frustrating attempts to reach an agreement it is clear that the IRA have continued to break every rule in the book and has refused to commit themselves to exclusively peaceful and democratic means. Now is the time for action from the government. . . It is time to get tough with Sinn Féin/IRA."
Northern Secretary Mr Paul Murphy said: "Paramilitary violence. . . has considerably reduced in the past six months but remains at a disturbingly high level . . Most violence is attributable to loyalist groups."