IRA is still recruiting - police chief
The IRA is continuing to recruit and target even if it is not going back to an armed struggle, Northern Ireland's most senior policeman claimed today.
Chief Constable Hugh Orde confirmed the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's assessment last week that the Provisionals are remaining active while an internal debate takes place on whether they should abandon violence purely for politics.
As he attended the first presentation ceremony in Belfast for officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland's awards for outstanding service, Mr Orde said: "Currently, I am absolutely clear the Provisional IRA are not going back to an armed struggle.
"That is my current assessment. They have the capability. They have the capacity.
"We know they are still recruiting, they still target, they still carry out the activities that they have always done with the exception of actually going out to kill soldiers, police, civilians, members of the public."
Two days ago, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams confirmed he had been contacted by the IRA leadership to say it had authorised an internal debate on his call to consider abandoning armed struggle.
Mr Adams restated his view that the way forward for republicanism was through building political support for its objectives across Ireland and internationally.
The West Belfast MP said: "Irish republicanism is at a defining point. The peace process is at a defining point.
"A positive decision by the IRA at the end of its internal deliberations will have enormous significance and impact.
"It has the potential to halt the downward spiral in the peace process and to strengthen our ability to advance our republican objectives."
