A HAUL of Semtex military explosive and detonators seized by gardai in Co Meath last week is believed to have come from an arms dump that the Provisional IRA retained after the decommissioning process.

The disclosure could have serious ramifications for Sinn Fein and the IRA, which claimed it destroyed its entire arsenal of weapons three years ago in an historic move that allowed republicans to share power with unionists in Northern Ireland.

The explosives were seized by local gardai on Wednesday night after a car was stopped on the outskirts of Kells following a surveillance operation.

A follow-up search yielded a large quantity of high velocity ammunition. Detectives believe the haul, which consisted of 2.5kg of Semtex and two detonators, were “removed” from an IRA arms dump in north Co Cavan or Co Leitrim.

A top-level investigation, involving Special Branch as well as the Crime and Security division — the spying agency — is now under way.

The disclosure that IRA members appeared to have retained stockpiles of weapons and explosives will be unsettling for the Democratic Unionist party, which recently re-started the Stormont power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein.

Peter Robinson’s party has been demanding that the IRA’s army council disband.

Jeffrey Donaldson, a DUP minister, said: “If it is proved these weapons were being stored by the IRA, or retainedby a rogue element, that has consequences in terms of people’s confidence in the republican movement. If there are people associated with the IRA who have retained, and are storing, weapons it needs to be dealt with.

“We were given assurances the IRA had decommissioned its weapons. It’s yet another reason for the Provisional IRA to completely disband.”

Jim Allister, the independent unionist MEP, said the seizure was proof the Provisionals still retained arms and “totally undermines Sinn Fein’s participation in government . . . and the DUP’s weakness in dealing with them”.

Gardai are trying to establish whether the bomb-making materials were “stolen” from the IRA or given by republicans to a third party to sell.

Gardai are carrying out searches of farmland in Cavan and the IRA is also believed to be conducting its own investigation.

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