A former Sinn Féin driver who spied on the party for the British security services is not under any threat from republicans, party president Gerry Adams has insisted.
Roy McShane, a well-recognised figure within republican circles, is understood to have left Northern Ireland on Friday and entered protective custody, having been identified as a British agent.
But Mr Adams said: "Certainly he [ McShane] is under no threat from republicans. I don't know where he is at the moment and whether he is under any threat from the people who have him, that is a question you would have to ask them.
"As far as Sinn Féin is concerned it is business as usual. We were wise to the fact that he had been, at some point, compromised. He wasn't a member of the party, although he did act as a driver. Once we became sus-picious we simply moved him out of any activity."
Ian Paisley jnr, however, has claimed that the unmasking of Mr McShane "highlights how far MI5 and the police have penetrated republicanism". He said the affair was a further indication that republicanism "can never succeed in its goal of a united Ireland and why they eventually had to throw their lot in and accept the British government and policing arrangements in Northern Ireland".
He added: "This revelation comes fast on the heels of the resignation of Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry McHugh who made it clear in his resignation statement that the DUP 'controlled Stormont' and are calling the shots."
Mr Adams said he was not concerned about the possibility of other spies, and he added that he had "been around too long" and was "too philosophical" to feel betrayed by the incident.
"I'm always concerned about dirty tricks. There was a debate in the Dáil recently about collusion and unanswered questions around collaboration between British agents and people who actively killed Irish citizens and others, so I'm always concerned about that . . . Sinn Féin is very, very healthy and very, very active and is not at all put off by these disclosures," he said.
Mr Adams said he knew that most of the expenditure of the British security services goes into the Republic and not the North.
"We can be sure the British have spies and agents within all sectors of opinion makers on this island . . . The British government actively recruiting, directing and working agents or spies in any part of Ireland is unacceptable.
"It seems to me that elements of the British intelligence services have not yet realised that the war is over and I make the point again, not just in the jurisdiction in the North but in this State also, that you can rest assured that a lot of activities are being undertaken," he said.
Mr McShane, a 59-year-old former IRA member, drove Sinn Féin leaders for a number of years during the peace process and Northern Assembly talks.
When asked if Mr McShane would have been privy to any sensitive information, the Sinn Féin president said he did not discuss matters that were "delicate or sensitive" in the car because he had found a bug in an earlier episode.
The revelation followed the exposure of former Sinn Féin members Denis Donaldson and Freddie Scappaticci as spies and at a time when the Eames- Bradley commission is understood to have been given evidence of high levels of British infiltration of Sinn Féin and the IRA.