The Provisional IRA's military leadership was declared officially redundant by the Government today, after a report declared that the group's terrorist infrastructure “is no longer operational or functional”.

The report, by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), was requested by ministers at the beginning of the summer when it became clear that the new political dispensation in Northern Ireland was in trouble yet again.

The current impasse has been caused by Sinn Fein’s refusal since June to attend meetings of the province’s power-sharing executive because of the opposition of its government partner, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Northern Ireland.

The DUP says that it will only agree to the move once there is sufficient public confidence that terrorism is at an end. It demands the complete disbandment of the Army Council, which ran what was arguably Europe's most feared terrorist organisation in the 1980s.

Today the IMC’s 12-page report said the Army Council was still in operation - but that it had no absolutely no links to terrorism.

"We are aware of the questions posed about the public disbandment of (Provisional Irish Republican Army's) PIRA's leadership structures," it said.

"We believe that PIRA has chosen another method of bringing what it describes as its armed struggle to a final close.

"Under PIRA's own rules the Army Council was the body that directed its military campaign. Now that that campaign is well and truly over, the Army Council by deliberate choice is no longer operational or functional."

It added: "This situation has been brought about by a conscious decision to let it fall into disuse rather than through any other mechanism."

The report concluded: "The mechanism which they have chosen to bring the armed conflict to a complete end has been the standing down of the structures which engaged in the armed campaign and the conscious decision to allow the Army Council to fall into disuse.

"By taking these steps, PIRA has completely relinquished the leadership and other structures appropriate to a time of armed conflict."

The nub of the current crisis is contained in the IMC’s view that:"There have not been, and we do not foresee that there will be, formal announcements about the disbandment of all or parts of the structure."

That means that, if the DUP continues to insist that the Army Council officially declares its disbandment – just as it finally declared an end to its armed campaign – the new political structure in Northern Ireland could be brought down.

Shaun Woodward, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said the report confirmed that the IRA had ceased to function.

"This groundbreaking report by the IMC makes clear that the Army Council is now redundant," he said.

"PIRA has met its commitment. It has abandoned all terrorist structures, its recruitment and PIRA's so-called 'military' departments have ceased to function and have been disbanded."

The findings of the report come as no surprise. The IMC gathers its information from the UK and Irish security apparatus, and both of the country's governments have declared themselves keen to put pressure on the DUP and Sinn Fein to complete the process of devolution.

There is also a requirement, under the 2006 St Andrews Agreement which led to the former sworn enemies to share power, for an Irish Language Act, which the DUP opposes.

The Irish government urged the parties in Northern Ireland to complete devolution by agreeing to assume responsibility for policing and justice.

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