Statement by Martin McGuinness on the publication of the Eighth Report of the IMC, (1 February 2006)

Statement by Martin McGuinness, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin, on the publication of the Eighth Report of the Independemt Monitoring Commission (IMC), (1 February 2006)

"The IMC has no place in the political process. It is no part of the Good Friday Agreement. It subverts the democratic mandate of all of the political parties but is specifically targeted at Sinn Féin. The individuals who make up the IMC and the group collectively are hostile to Irish Republicanism and are a proxy for political policing.

Those who supply the information for the IMC reports include DUP supporters in Special Branch and are the same people who collapsed the political institutions and who ten years ago were controlling and directing a murder campaign against Sinn Féin members and the wider nationalist community.

It is unacceptable that the entire political process is being held to ransom by these people. Sinn Féin have challenged the IMC and the two governments to produce evidence to back up allegations contained in other IMC reports. They have all failed to do so.

Given the history of the IMC, its make-up and its overtly political and anti-republican agenda people will be rightly dismissive and sceptical of anything detailed in their reports. This is the work of an anti-republican body which is little more than a proxy for securocrats and political detectives."