'IRA spy ring' at offices could cost taxpayer £90m

Taxpayers face a bill of "tens of millions of pounds" to find new homes for police and prison officers whose personal details could have been revealed by alleged IRA security breaches, the Government said yesterday.

John Reid, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, acknowledged the potential cost when he made an emergency Commons statement on the crisis in the peace process. He said MI5 intelligence experts were investigating how a suspected IRA spy-ring in the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) obtained secret Government papers, including the identities of hundreds of prison officers.

Up to 200 policemen and women have already had to move after a book containing the names and telephone numbers of Special Branch officers was stolen from the offices at Castlereagh police station, Belfast. The break-in has been blamed on the IRA.

The Unionist leader David Trimble told the Commons the cost of moving police affected by the Castlereagh break-in could reach £30m, with a further potential bill of £60m for moving prison officers whose security was compromised by infiltration of the NIO.

Mr Reid said: "The costs are huge for the measures that had to be taken to protect police who may be vulnerable after Castlereagh." He also said suggestions that about 1,000 documents could have been stolen in the NIO operation were "not far off".

He came under fire from Tories and the Unionists as he set out his reasons for suspending the province's devolved administration on Monday. They said he should instead have expelled Sinn Fein from the power-sharing Executive, because of the alleged IRA operation at Stormont.

Quentin Davies, the shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland, said: "The great moral blame for what has happened must lie with Sinn Fein-IRA and with no one else. They have persistently and blatantly breached their obligations under the ceasefire and the [Good Friday] Agreement."

Mr Trimble claimed Mr Reid had "funked" the situation and sacrificed the political process for fear of what might happen to the IRA ceasefire.

But Mr Reid said the re-imposition of direct rule from Whitehall in Northern Ireland would provide a chance to rebuild the peace process on "firm, sound and lasting" foundations. He said the suspension was the result of an impasse in just one part of the Agreement. "The peace process and the Agreement have increased prosperity, revitalised society, safeguarded rights and, above all, saved lives," he said.