Criminal assets: The State will continue to try to track down IRA assets and those responsible for the Northern Bank raid, according to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
He also said that there was no question of an early release for the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe, who would serve their full sentences.
Mr McDowell was responding to the IRA statement on the end of its armed campaign while attending a graduation ceremony at the Garda College in Templemore yesterday. He welcomed the statement as "a major step forward", but stressed he did not wish to pre-empt the statement from the two governments.
The IRA's assets were criminal assets, he said, and they and the bank raid would "remain on the agenda".
"They are all unaffected by the cessation of the military campaign."
He said the situation of those convicted of the killing of Det McCabe was unchanged by the statement.
Asked if he was disappointed that there was nothing in the statement about the disbanding of the IRA, he said he did not wish to be negative.
However, he added: "The IRA is an illegal organisation and must go out of existence or change...
"It will have to disband or change so that it is no longer in conflict with our Constitution and the 1939 Act."
He refused to express disappointment that the IRA had been ordered only to dump arms, saying: "I want to be positive. It is a major step forward. It is the end to armed activity."