The British government has named the three members of an independent panel appointed to assess the status of the IRA and other paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.
They are Lord Carlisle, the Liberal Democrat peer who was the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation from 2001–2011; Rosalie Flanagan, a senior Northern Irish civil servant and the former permanent secretary of the department of culture, arts and leisure in the Stormont devolved government; and Stephen Shaw QC, who has been a senior counsel in the region since December 2001.
The Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, has appointed the panel in response to unionist demands for a new evaluation of the alleged ongoing existence of the Provisional IRA and its reported role in killing the former republican prisoner Kevin McGuigan.
The Northern Ireland Office said on Tuesday that the trio will oversee a “factual assessment” from the UK security agencies and the Police Service of Northern Ireland into “the structure, role and purpose of paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland”.
Villiers said: “I am very grateful for each of the reviewers for agreeing to take on this important work. They are all highly respected individuals. I am confident that they will bring rigour, integrity and independence to this important task.”
Following McGuigan’s murder in August, the PSNI’s Ch Const George Hamilton said police believed the IRA still existed in some form and that some of its members had killed their ex-comrade.
The head of the PSNI’s assessment prompted the Ulster Unionist party to leave the five-party power sharing coalition in Belfast. In turn the largest force in unionism, the Democratic Unionists, pulled all its ministers bar one from the Northern Ireland Executive.
The unionists acted in protest at what they believed was a breach of faith. They had agreed only to go into power sharing government with Sinn Fein once the IRA had dissolved as a military force and decommissioned most of its weaponry.
The trio appointed by the secretary of state, while having vast experience in some cases in examining counter-terrorist policies, do not have any track record in the police or armed forces. Carlisle was awarded a CBE in the 2012 New Year honours list for services to national security.
They will be tasked with reporting on the status of the IRA and other terror groups by mid October and their findings could either make or break the current power sharing arrangement in Belfast.
Unionists have called for a new version of the independent monitoring commission, set up during the peace process to report on claims of breaches in the IRA and loyalist paramilitary ceasefires.
The original IMC was comprised of three world security experts: John Crieve, the former head of the Metropolitan police’s anti-terrorist branch; Joe Brosnan from the Irish Republic’s department of justice and Dick Kerr, a former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was also chaired by the former Alliance party leader, Lord Alderdice.
It concluded its operations in 2011 after the IRA had issued a statement saying that it was no longer operating on a war footing and that its huge illegal arsenal had been put beyond use.
