It has been claimed that some IRA members are involved in the “storage of weaponry”.

Details of a security assessment carried out by MI5 were discussed on Friday during BBC Radio Ulster’s the Nolan Show.

Opening the show Mr Nolan said that the PSNI had confirmed to his programme earlier that morning that a small number of IRA members are involved in “the storage of weaponry” and “attempting to identify covert human intelligence sources”.

During his show Mr Nolan claimed that the latest assessment “is that some IRA members are involved in gathering information such as details of dissident republican activity”.

The revelations follow recent controversy over DUP ministers Gordon Lyons and Paul Givan meeting with the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC).

LCC representatives which represents the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando, reportedly met with the communities and education ministers to discuss economic deprivation, housing and educational underachievement in loyalist and unionist areas.

Mr Nolan said: “All the focus that there has been over recent weeks on the LCC, and look at this, the PSNI telling us that the 2015 assessment still stands.”

A 2015 assessment of the structures and activities of the paramilitary groups founds that IRA Army Council still existed albeit with a “wholly political focus”.

The assessment said that IRA members believed the army council oversaw the overarching strategy of both the IRA and Sinn Fein.

According to the Nolan show a recent assessment found that some members of the IRA are involved in the “storage of weaponry” in order to “prevent it from falling into dissident hands”.

The assessment reportedly also found that some IRA members are also involved in information gathering including “details of dissident republican activity” and “attempting to identify covert human intelligence sources”.

He added that the findings had confirmed that some members of the IRA “remain involved in criminal activity” including “large scale smuggling”.

Mr Nolan continued: “It’s important to highlight that this same report does say that the provisional IRA of the Troubles era is well beyond recall, it is very important to say that the leadership remains committed to the peace process and its aim of achieving a united Ireland by political means.

“And the group is not involved in targeting or conducting terrorist attacks against the state”.

A spokesperson for the PSNI: “The assessment commissioned in 2015 by the then Secretary of State on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland has not changed.”

Sinn Fein has been contacted for comment.