Northern Ireland needs 200m to fight republican terror, warns police chief
Head of PSNI said extra funds will allow his force to tackle mounting violence by groups opposed to peace process
An extra 200m will be needed to wage war on dissident republican terror groups, Northern Ireland's chief constable warned today.
Matt Baggott, the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), has revealed that he has asked the UK Treasury to allocate the additional spending on anti-terrorist operations.
He told members of the policing board that the funds were needed to ensure stability of his force. "I do need to have additional support to tackle the terrorist problem," Baggott said. "This is a very, very real and sustained challenge to the political process and it's one that we have to tackle head on.
He added: "We have over the last two years already received support from the Treasury as a measure of that additional threat, I am asking for that to be sustained over the next four years."
The PSNI chief's demand for additional resources comes as the three main republican terror groups opposed to the peace process are trying to ratchet up their violence.
Over the past week Oghlaigh nahEireann bombers have caused widespread disruption in Belfast, with a series of security alerts.
However, the Real IRA has sustained losses with the arrest of several key suspects across the border in the Irish Republic. Earlier this week in a planned Garda anti-terrorist operation in Dublin, detectives seized bomb-making equipment in the north of the city. In a separate search in Bray, County Wicklow, Garda recovered an AK47 assault rifle. A number of people, including a woman in her 20s were arrested.
Gardai in Dublin are now working on the theory that as well as supplying arms to their colleagues in Northern Ireland, dissident republicans in the capital are behind a series of shootings targeting gangland figures.
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