THE Stormont Government has announced an independent assessment into paramilitary organisations in the North of Ireland.
Secretary of State Theresa Villiers said in a statement today that the assessment will be carried out by security agencies and the PSNI, and also confirmed talks would resume on Monday.
“This assessment will be published by mid-October and will be available to inform the parties’ discussions and conclusions in the cross party talks,” she said.
Ms Villiers also announced that she is to establish a fund to tackle organised crime associated with paramilitary groups.
The move was welcomed by DUP leader Peter Robinson, who pulled most of his party out of the Northern Ireland Executive following last month’s PSNI acknowledgment of the existence of the IRA.
The PSNI statement has caused a crisis in Stormont and talks have so far been futile – but Ms Villiers will re-convene the cross-party talks on Monday.
And these will be the first talks since the DUP withdrew from Government that the party will take part in.
“On the basis of the Secretary of State’s statement today we will be participating in the talks on Monday,” Mr Robinson said.
The Republic’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said he looks forward to talks resuming on Monday and “making rapid progress” in a solution to the crisis.
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness said that the party will be heading in to the talks prepared to work with their Stormont colleagues.
“We will work with the other parties to tackle the issue of armed groups, which want to drag us back to the past including active unionist paramilitaries and armed republican dissidents, and organised criminals who are a blight on the community," he said.
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