Officially, the IRA is wedded to the peace process. However, its continued involvement in beatings, shootings and robberies along with its active recruitment and training policy suggest it has not mended its ways, writes Jim Cusack, Security Editor
Speaking at last week's joint Garda-PSNI conference, a senior PSNI officer presented information that the IRA was still procuring arms and military equipment.
He also said it was targeting police, government and political figures.
The conference was held at the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary.
It heard that the IRA was said to be "very active" in areas of training, recruiting, targeting and procurement.
The assessment is at odds with Government sources in Dublin and Belfast, who were portraying the second act of decommissioning - which is understood to involve a very substantial amount of old IRA weapons - as evidence that the IRA is wedded to the political peace process.
The Government sources said that the second act of decommissioning "substantial" and "varied" armaments was a major advance from the days when the IRA response to requests to destroy or surrender weapons was "not a bullet, not an ounce".
Government sources also say there is negative propaganda being issued by "securocrats" who are opposed to the peace process.
The verifiable act of decommissioning can lead to progress on the thorny issue of the repatriation of possibly 200 or more IRA members who have been on the run from Northern Ireland and to the reduction of British Army posts along the Border, particularly in south Armagh.
A reciprocal gesture on demilitarisation in south Armagh is expected shortly and it is understood there has been third-party contact between the British Army and republicans about the reduction of the military presence in south Armagh.
However, the return of the on- the-runs (OTRs) is said to be a more difficult issue. The methods of achieving this which are open to the British government include the introduction of legislation or the application of the royal prerogative. This prerogative is very rarely used and legislation might be held up or stopped by the House of Lords.
Whatever the next developments may be in the peace process in Northern Ireland, senior police figures indicate that the IRA is showing no signs of disbanding.
More than one source said that the IRA acquired "probably hundreds" of guns from its smuggling operation in Florida in 1997-1999. Last month, Maserati Meli, a 59-year-old man from a well-known chip-shop owning family in west Belfast, pleaded guilty in a Florida court to attempting to acquire 20 handguns which were to be smuggled to Northern Ireland.
It is believed that Meli's arrest last November as he left a gun shop where he had tried to buy 20 handguns may have been the incident which the PSNI officer, speaking in Templemore, was referring to as arms procurement.
Other police sources in the Republic indicate that the IRA has carried out at least two armed robberies since the start of the year: that of a security lorry in Kerry in February and of another lorry carrying confectionery in north Dublin.
Also, punishment shootings, beatings and expulsions continue in Northern Ireland.
As members of the IRA were directing Gen de Chastelain of the decommissioning commission and his team to an arms bunker at an unknown location in the Republic on Saturday night, other members of the same organisation were abducting a 20-year-old man in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast. The man was taken to an alleyway of Glasvey Close, where he was shot in both hands and both feet. Senior security sources said yesterday that the second act of decommissioning was expected before the general election in the Republic to assist Sinn Féin's chances of winning seats.
But there was also some urgency on the IRA's part to carry out an act of disarmament prior to the April 24th opening of the US Congress hearing into links between the IRA and the Colombian terrorist group FARC.
The Republican congressman, Mr Henry J. Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has called the Sinn Féin leader, Mr Gerry Adams, to give evidence to the inquiry which is examining links between FARC, the IRA and the Basque terrorist group, ETA.
It is expected the hearing could hear embarrassing claims about the IRA sending up to two dozen figures to Colombia in recent years to train FARC guerrillas in the use of bombs and mortars.
The heads of both the military and the police in Colombia are expected to give evidence to the inquiry about evidence they have of people being trained by the IRA.
It is suspected the IRA was supplying arms training with the technically less sophisticated FARC organisation in return for funding. US sources say FARC makes up to $600 million per annum from the control of cocaine production.