And he warned that the recent Talk Talk hack, which is suspected to have been carried out by a teenage boy in Antrim, would prompt Isil terror cells to consider Northern Ireland as a place to plan attacks on mainland UK. Earlier this year David McNarry, the leader of Ukip in Northern Ireland, warned Isil terrorists may already be working with former members of the IRA to plan attacks. He said: "I am really worried and will be very active on it, on tightening up our border. It is just so porous and there are so many undesirables are crossing that border. "How ISIS works is they will recruit other people and will also recruit people from other terrorist organisations who have technology or knowledge that they need. I am pretty sure that that is already happening [in Northern Ireland]." A UK Government spokesman said: “Tackling terrorism, including Northern Ireland Related Terrorism, is the highest priority for this Government. We work constantly with the United Kingdom’s police and security services, and other governments, to confront the evolving threats we face. In Northern Ireland the primary terrorism threat is from violent dissident republicans and that is where the bulk of resources and enforcement effort is directed, but we review the threat picture constantly.
The security services have reportedly said they fear that northern territory offers an easy target for Islamist extremist groups to launch plots in the UK . Two senior security officials have suggested that there is a “ blind spot ” to Islamist extremism in Northern Ireland . These fears are based on the fact that the government ’s Prevent counter - terrorism strategy does n’t extend to Northern Ireland ; the police there are focused on sectarian violence rather than external threats ; and terrorist cells could base themselves in Northern Ireland and then slip across the border , which is not closely monitored . Ian Paisley , the democratic Unionist Party ( DUP ) MP , agreed , arguing that : “ The key issue is not that we have n’t got Prevent , it ’s have we got our own policies in place to make people aware of radicalisation amongst people – not for Irish terrorism but Isil terrorism . ”