Sinn Fein MLA and former IRA prisoner Sean Lynch has been forced to check under his car after the new IRA warned of a dissident plot to launch a bomb attack on members of the republican party, including him.

The new IRA threats against Sinn Fein have been described as "deplorable" and "outrageous" by the senior Lisnaskea republican who was warned about the potential attack this week.

Mr. Lynch, who last week spoke about becoming a member of the Policing Board for the first time, told The Impartial Reporter: “The threat is against all Sinn Fein members so I take it seriously to the point I checked under my car this morning.

“I have a family, a six-year-old in the house. Nevertheless, threats have never and will never deter me from being a republican seeking a better future for all citizens,” he said.

Last week, Michelle O'Neill, Stormont's Deputy First Minister, said officers had warned that dissident republicans were planning to attack her and Policing Board member Gerry Kelly.

It came in response to the pair's attendance at a Police Service of Northern Ireland recruitment event.

On Monday night, Ms O'Neill indicated that the plot had widened to encompass all Sinn Fein members.

She said police had advised that the New IRA was the dissident grouping behind the plan.

Mr. Kelly said: "What came home to me when I got threats, and I have gotten threats over the years, was when my children were a bit younger and started saying things like, 'Do I need to close the door daddy', or 'Do I need to watch when we go out in the car', and things like that.

"That is when it comes home to you.

"It was part and parcel of what we were as political representatives involved in, so it is the families I think will worry most.

"I can also say with considerable confidence that there is probably not a single Sinn Fein representative who will be deterred from pursuing what we have been pursuing, which is an Ireland of equals,” he said.