A secret deal was done between the IRA and the British government on demilitarisation, the North's Deputy First Minister has said. Mr Seamus Mallon, who yesterday repeated his call for the IRA to get rid of its illegal arms, said his party was not privy to any secret deal reached at the Hillsborough talks in May. "The question of demilitarisation is one which unfortunately has been subject to secret deals between both the IRA and the British government.
"The negotiating weakness is that I don't know what was promised by the British government on that issue to Sinn Fein, nor do I know if Sinn Fein are telling the truth when they say that the British government didn't deliver." Mr Mallon, who was speaking yesterday on RTE, said demilitarisation was being used as a "bargaining tool".
Senior British government sources last night insisted no secret deal was done.
The North's Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness, would only say "detailed discussions" at Hillsborough had led to a public deal. Later on the BBC he claimed senior unionists had privately admitted to him that the IRA's decision to allow a number of its arms bunkers to be inspected was a powerful development.
