'Confidence lacking' in IRA move

David McCaughey was the DUP's choice to witness decommissioning

IRA decommissioning has not produced the level of confidence within the unionist community it could have, a senior Protestant clergyman has said.

Former Presbyterian Moderator, the Reverend David McCaughey, was the DUP's choice to be an independent witness.

However, Mr McCaughey said his appointment was vetoed by the IRA and had been blocked for political reasons.

He said unionists would be more willing to move forward if they fully believed the IRA's arsenal had been destroyed.

"I feel we were at a crossroads there and it was a very important crossroads," he said.

"I believe that if the unionist community had been convinced that the arms had been destroyed at that juncture, there would have been a willingness, certainly amongst some of them, to say this has happened lets go forward."

After IRA decommissioning was announced last month, the DUP said the two independent church witnesses, Catholic priest Father Alec Reid and ex-Methodist president Reverend Harold Good, had been nominated by the IRA.