Security Situation

Peter Bottomley
8. To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the threat to security in Northern Ireland arising from the recent threat by the Real IRA to fight the long war.

Mr. Woodward
As the Chief Constable and Garda Commissioner have indicated, dissident republicans remain a serious and continuing threat with a determination to kill or injure police officers. These criminal gangs are isolated within the wider community and law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border remain resolute in their determination to tackle such criminality.

Mark Pritchard
11. To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent assessment he has made of the security situation in Northern Ireland.

Mr. Woodward
Dissident republicans remain active and committed to killing or injuring police officers. Progress from loyalists towards decommissioning has been disappointing and I would again encourage them to take advantage of the extension to the decommissioning amnesty.