DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST (DUP) ministers will return to the power-sharing Stormont executive after a British government-ordered review dismissed their claims that the IRA had reactivated.

The independent assessment found that all the main republican and loyalist groups, including the Provisional IRA, still exist, but that their leaders are committed to peace.

The review, ordered after the shooting of alleged dissident republican Kevin McGuigan in August, said that an IRA “provisional army council” remains in place and that IRA members believe that ruling body “oversees” Sinn Fein’s strategy.