Nóirín O'Sullivan 'did not deny IRA exists' in letter to Sinn Féin

Nóirín O'Sullivan had been under pressure to clarify her position

The head of the Republic of Ireland's police force has denied writing to Sinn Féin to say her force believed the Provisional IRA had ceased to exist.

Nóirín O'Sullivan had been under pressure to clarify her position after the PSNI said some Provisional IRA members were involved in the Belfast murder of Kevin McGuigan Sr.

In February, she wrote to Sinn Féin to say she had no evidence it was active.

She has now said she did not deny the organisation's existence.

Ms O'Sullivan wrote to Sinn Féin's justice spokesman in the Republic of Ireland, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, to say her force had no information or intelligence to support the assertion that the Provisional IRA still maintained its paramilitary structures or its involvement in criminal activities.

That position seemed to some to be at odds with the PSNI's statements that the IRA still existed and that some of its members were suspected of involvement in Mr McGuigan Sr's murder.

With the Irish justice minister Frances Fitzgerald calling for a fresh assessment of the country's police intelligence on the IRA, Ms O'Sullivan broke several days of silence on the issue.

In her statement she said she had not denied the existence of the IRA, and in her letter to Sinn Féin she had noted that former IRA members were involved in crime.

Security assessments, she added, were kept under constant review.