The Irish Republican Army, which for almost 30 years fought a low-level insurgency against the British in Northern Ireland, is no longer a threat to security and its leadership structures have been allowed to “wither away”, according to an expert panel set up by the UK and Irish governments.

In a special report commissioned by the two governments, the Independent Monitoring Committee (IMC) said it was convinced the IRA was committed to an exclusively political path, and had abandoned its terrorist structures.