February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Ahern told the Dail Tuesday that the report confirmed his belief that the IRA carried out the heist with the foreknowledge of senior Sinn Fein politicians.
The report, which was studied by the cabinet Tuesday morning, is to be published Thursday and is likely to recommend that sanctions be imposed on Sinn Fein.
When asked by Labor leader Pat Rabbitte if the report had changed his mind about who was responsible for the robbery Ahern said, “If anything, it would go beyond anything I’ve said myself.”
Ahern gave a downbeat assessment of the current political crisis in the North. He had earlier ruled out the possibility that a deal could be struck before 2006.
While the IMC will recommend that Sinn Fein be subject to financial sanctions, Ahern’s government will press the British government not to punish the party. Government sources claim that to do so would allow Sinn Fein to pose as “victims.”
This will be the second time that the IMC has recommended that Sinn Fein be fined over alleged IRA activity. It reported early last year on the alleged abduction by the IRA of dissident republican Bobby Tohill. It claimed that the IRA had been involved and that Sinn Fein should be fined. The UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party was also fined after the IMC reported on ongoing UVF violence.
The IMC comprises John Alderdice, former leader of the Alliance Party; Joe Brosnan, former secretary general of the Irish Department of Justice; John Grieve, former deputy assistant commissioner in the British Metropolitan Police, and former CIA deputy director Dick Kerr.
Republicans claim the IMC was established as a sop to Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble during talks in 2003 and that it was designed to exclude Sinn Fein from government. Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness described it at the weekend as “three spooks and a lord.”