Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister MLA:

“Sinn Fein/IRA’s national chairman Declan Kearney’s attack on the security services in Northern Ireland revels that Republican support for the police is at best highly conditional. It is so conditional that if Kearney’s advice were to be followed our ability to combat the on-going threat posed by terrorists would be severely hampered.

“Several times during an interview this morning Sinn Fein’s chairman was asked if he supported attempts by the intelligence services to infiltrate so-called dissident groups. Each time he refused. Just why is Sinn Fein/IRA seeking to defend these groups from the security services?

“It is hard to escape the conclusion that the links between co-First Minister McGuinness’s party and those who continue to mount murderous attacks on the police are not so tenuous as some might have us believe.

“A party cannot claim to support the rule of law and at the same time call for attempts to undermine terrorism to be halted.”