THE political focus on the Provisional IRA's continued existence has shifted south with the Republic's justice minister ordering a fresh assessment of the group's activities.
Frances Fitzgerald told Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan to investigate any new evidence about the paramilitary organisation's structures.
The move comes on the back of PSNI revelations that members of the Provisional IRA were involved in the murder of Kevin McGuigan in Belfast's Short Strand two weeks ago.
On Monday, Secretary of State Theresa Villiers said she was not surprised by Chief Constable George Hamilton's assertion that PIRA was still in existence, though not involved in paramilitary activity.
Her statement has prompted the Ulster Unionists to consider leaving the Stormont executive, though the party was yesterday declining to elaborate on what steps it may take over the coming days.
SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell said his party would make a decision about its position in the power-sharing executive "when we have the facts".
The South Belfast MP said it was not enough for Provisional IRA to stop murdering members of the security forces or Protestants while it continued to kill Catholics.
"When it continues to deal in organised crime supported by terror then it still exists," he said.
In Dublin, the Fine Gael justice minister said the current security assessment was that the IRA remained on an exclusively political path with "military" units disbanded.
Ms Fitzgerald said there were "no simplistic answers" about the continued existence of the group.
"To simply say PIRA continues to exist as if nothing has changed would be quite wrong."
But she said security assessments needed to be kept under review in the light of the emergence of any fresh evidence from the PSNI.
The justice minister backed Ms Villiers' call for the Stormont parties to get on with their work and allow the PSNI investigation into the killing of Mr McGuigan to proceed.
"This is a time for cool heads and measured judgments," she said.
Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley accused the justice minister of abusing her position to make "smears of illegality" about republicans.
Party leader Gerry Adams insisted at the weekend that the IRA had "gone away".
But Tanaiste Joan Burton yesterday said she did not believe him.
"When people leave the stage, that leaves the question where do they go? Are they at the side of the stage or at the back of the stage?" she said.
Ms Burton said she accepted security assessments by police chiefs on both sides of the border, but added the apparent existence of IRA structures is "deeply worrying for anyone who cares about democracy in Ireland".
The Labour leader, whose party is in contention with Sinn Fein ahead of an imminent general election in the Republic, denied she was using the controversy for party political purposes.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has also called on the Irish and British governments to convene a meeting to reaffirm the basic principles of the peace process.
"The maintenance of a private militia structure is not consistent or compatible with basic democratic principles. This is not an anti-peace process position, it is one of the most basic core principles of the peace process," he said.
