The IRA is still a "highly active" organisation involved in recruiting, training and intelligence gathering, the North's Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) said this morning.
But in its fifth report to the Irish and British governments, the IMC said loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for more violence than republicans.
Independent Monitoring Commission
"PIRA [Provisional IRA] continues to seek to maintain its medium term effectiveness. It recruits and trains new members, including in the use of firearms and explosives," the report, published on the IMC website, said.
"It continues to gather intelligence," it added.
The commission pointed out that at the end of September last, police discovered 10,000 rounds of IRA ammunition suitable for use in assault rifles, of a type not previously found in Northern Ireland and manufactured since the Belfast Agreement.
"This may have been only part of a larger consignment and it demonstrates PIRA's continuing efforts to maintain its preparedness," the report said.
On the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney on January 30th, the IMC said it believed members of Provisional IRA were involved.
It added it did not believe the central Provisional leadership sanctioned the killing in advance, "but those concerned may have believed they were acting at the direction of a local senior PIRA member at the scene".
It said that throughout the events after the murder "Robert McCartney's family have set an example to everybody by their courage and determination."
The report said the Provisional movement remained heavily engaged in organised crime, including the smuggling of fuel and tobacco.
"Recent events have shown PIRA's sophisticated use of money laundering as a means of securing long term the proceeds of serious crime." But it said that if Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, was able to deliver a complete end to IRA armed struggle and an embrace of politics "he will have demonstrated leadership of a high order."
The commission said the largest loyalist paramilitary organisation, the UDA, was still active. "In September and October 2004 the UDA were involved in both violence and targeting," the report said.
It blamed the group for the killing of Darren Thompson who was shot on September 29th last 2004 and died on October 1st.
On September 19th, UDA members, with the approval of the local leadership, attacked Stephen Nelson who died on March 18th, 2005.
"We have always recognised that transition may be a messy and difficult process for a paramilitary group. To date it is not clear if the UDA will achieve the transition it pointed to in its statement of November 2004. Certainly the process is still very far from complete".
The report said that "for the most part" the downward trend in paramilitary violence had continued though the number of paramilitary murders was comparable to that in the previous two six-month periods.
