NI: Organised crime report published

A report on organised crime (.pdf, right-click for direct download) in Northern Ireland has been published by the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
The report is the result of more than six months of meetings to take evidence from a wide range of sources. These include the police, Assets Recovery Agency and customs officials. The report will comment on the extent of organised crime and how effective measures taken by the police and government agencies to combat it are.

BBC NI's Home Affairs Correspondent Vincent Kearney said most interest will focus on what is said about the IRA - if its members are still heavily involved in crime, and if so, if their involvement is authorised by the organisation's leadership.
The British and Irish governments will hope the committee reaches the same conclusion as the last report by the IMC, that while IRA members are still involved, it is for personal gain and the organisation is moving away from crime.

Close attention will also be paid to what is said about loyalist paramilitaries. One of the committee members is the Ulster Unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon. Last month, she criticised the decision to allow David Ervine, the leader of the PUP, which is linked to the UVF, to join her party's Stormont assembly group. A conclusion that the UVF is still actively involved in crime would cause more unease for Lady Hermon. (BBC News, Wednesday 5 July 2006)

Full text of the report (PDF).