Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-

“After all the bluster of last week and empty talk of exclusion of Sinn Fein, true to form, this week Peter Robinson has begun its retreat with time-buying talk of even more talks with their partner and IRA denier, Sinn Fein. Another process! How the IRA must be laughing.

“The truth is that, as with the murder of Paul Quinn, the DUP is readying itself to turn a blind eye to murder. It even seems prepared to aggrandise itself through another ministry offered courtesy of an IRA murder.

“The ease with which the DUP clings to the political wing of the IRA in government is quite staggering. How many murders would it take to bring them out from among them?”

Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:

“The expose in recent days of the connivance by the PSNI with the Provos over the investigation and pursuit of events surrounding the murder of Robert McCartney is quite shocking. This was political policing at its worst. To even contemplate, never mind activate, a clandestine negotiation with the organisation implicated in the murder, whereby their clean up operation would be ignored in the foolish and naive hope that they might help identify their killers, is a staggering insight into the perversion of policing operated at the senior level identified.
“Little wonder the McCartney family are outraged. So should everyone who cares anything for the independence and reputation of policing and our criminal justice system.

“It was a total travesty of not just good policing, but independent policing, to strike a deal with the perpetrating organisation not to follow the evidence and let the Provo clean up squad off scot-free. Nor, is it any surprise to me that the Provos double crossed the police and left with with nothing.

“The uncovering of this escapade also raises legitimate questions as to what other police investigations were corrupted by police co-operation with the Provos? There certainly is a long line of Provo crimes with no convictions, where convictions would have embarrassed ‘the peace process’. In how many of these have there also been “arrangements” with the perpetrators?

“Suspects ‘helping police with their enquiries’ is a familiar concept, but the police helping suspects avoid enquiries is a whole new notion. “

Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-

“For years, as part of the choreographed deception of “the peace process”, the British Government, along with the major parties in Northern Ireland, have peddled the notion that the IRA was gone.

“Now, when Provos have been caught out murdering, the Secretary of State’s pathetic response is to attempt to sanitise the IRA, by claiming that nonetheless they are not engaged in terrorism. What is murder by members of a proscribed organisation other than terrorism, or does it now qualify as peace building?

“And, then, as if to make it better and unremarkable, she tells us she has known for years that the IRA still exists! That means for all these years that Sinn Fein has been in government they’ve had a paramilitary wing – just as TUV has long maintained!

“Sinn Fein remains the political wing of the IRA and it is this reality that those unionists who sustain them in office must face. While I draw some comfort from the fact that some of the most impatient enthusiasts for getting into government with Sinn Fein, like Ian Paisley, are today discovering they are not fit for government, it will take action, not words, to rectify the situation.

“The DUP and UUP will be judged by what they do, not what they say.”

Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-

“For all the politicking of the Chief Constable and his resort to the “constructive ambiguity” that has hallmarked the dishonesty of “the peace process”, the choice which faces the unionist politicians, whose partnership with IRA/SF he seeks to facilitate, is “By your inaction are you prepared, again, to give the Provos a licence to kill?”

“Make no mistake, those inclined to let Sinn Fein and its IRA off the hook, are not just turning a blind eye to murder but signalling to the republican leadership that the IRA can kill again, provided they oblige by leaving no trace of official sanction.

“What a sordid, degenerate basis for the operation and survival of any political arrangement!

“Behind all the posturing of the DUP and UUP over the IRA killing of Kevin McGuigan, the choice they face is in or out of government with the political wing of his killers.

“Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right.”

Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:

“However it is dressed up and whatever spin is deployed the words of the PSNI yesterday could not have been clearer. “The Provisional IRA were involved in this murder.” Anyone who cannot understand that clearly has a political interest in not understanding it.

“Put simply, the IRA exists. They have not decommissioned all their weapons. They have committed murder on the streets of our capital city.

“That being the case the DUP and UUP partner the political wing of a murderous terrorist organisation in government.

“In essence what the DUP and UUP are asking is – were the IRA stupid enough to leave a clear trail of evidence which allows them to say definitively that the IRA ordered the murdered?

“Are they looking for a signed note from P O’Neill ordering the murder or a news conference from Connolly House at which responsibility is claimed?

“It’s a nonsense. They haven’t gone away you know. But it is already clear that pro-Agreement Unionism is prepared again put their Stormont salaries above justice.”

Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-

“As Kevin McGuigan is buried some, including the organisation which murdered him and the governments, both at Westminster and Stormont, are hoping to also bury any resulting ramifications for the political process.

“It was no surprise that Sinn Fein warned journalists and the public that it was “unhelpful” to speculate – code for don’t blame the IRA, but when the PSNI join in the same chorus, then, it is clear that officialdom has its mind set on whitewashing the truth. This is a major test for the Chief Constable’s capacity to put proper policing above political considerations. His predecessors failed, when the choice was made to equivocate and prevaricate over who actually murdered Paul Quinn and Robert McCartney. Little wonder Catherine McCartney has expressed her concerns. She was spot on.

“But this situation is also a test for journalists and politicians. Who will relentlessly pursue and expose the truth and who will obey the Sinn Fein demand to be “helpful”? Who, for the sake of office and the process, will concur in the obfuscation and ‘constructive ambiguity’ that will attend this matter over the coming weeks. On past performance I think I know the answer, but, once more politicians, particularly unionist leaders, are being tested.”