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Mr. William Hague (Richmond, Yorks): We are grateful to the Prime Minister for his statement. The whole House will appreciate his efforts and those of many others to resolve those very difficult problems.
The Good Friday agreement continues to have the full and unequivocal support of the Opposition. It offers the prize of peace and an end to the horror and suffering of the past 30 years. We are committed to making it work and to seeing it implemented in full.
Does the Prime Minister agree that the decommissioning of all illegally held arms and explosives is an absolutely essential part of that process? It was supposed to begin almost immediately and to be completed by May 2000, but, so far, it has not happened. Will he make it clear that the obstacle to progress has been not the right hon. Member for Upper Bann (Mr. Trimble) and his party, who have done all that was required under the agreement, but the terrorists--republican and loyalist--and their political representatives, who have failed to get rid of their arms?
Does the Prime Minister agree that, against that background, the anxieties of the Unionists are wholly understandable? They are being asked to admit, as Government Ministers in a part of the United Kingdom, representatives of terrorist groups that remain fully armed and capable of carrying out violence on a massive scale. They are being asked to take on trust claims by Sinn Fein, which does not even profess to speak for the IRA, that, once it is in government, disarmament might take place.
In assessing these proposals, we have two major areas of concern that give rise to two sets of questions. First, it is clear that there is still no cast-iron guarantee that the IRA will commence decommissioning its weapons. One of its leaders was quoted as saying that there was no guarantee of decommissioning. Will the Prime Minister confirm that, in the emergency legislation--to which the House will give speedy passage--there will be a precise, transparent timetable for decommissioning?
Secondly, on the failsafe guarantee, Friday's document states that, without decommissioning, the Government
Will the Prime Minister confirm also that, in those circumstances, he would, without hesitation, put on hold any reform of the RUC and criminal justice system and stop the early release of terrorist prisoners?
We are now at a stage where the two Governments--British and Irish--and the democratic parties, nationalist and Unionist, have jumped every hurdle. Let us make no mistake: the stumbling block is the failure of paramilitaries, loyalist and republican, to decommission weapons. Does the Prime Minister agree that it is now up to those paramilitaries to make the process work, and, if they fail to do so, we should set the maximum penalties for them?
The Prime Minister:
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his support. The bipartisan support in the whole process has been extremely important in taking it forward, and I hope that it continues, because it will be difficult to make progress without it.
The right hon. Gentleman said that decommissioning has not happened, but the Executive has not yet been established, and the decommissioning issue is precisely what held it up. People point out that we said that representatives could not sit in the Executive until we were sure that they had given up violence for good--that is what I said during the referendum campaign, and that is, of course, precisely why they are not sitting in the Executive. We need to deal with that issue, which is why we have tried to reach agreement in the way that we have.
I entirely agree--it is important to emphasise this point--that loyalist paramilitaries have to decommission too. There can be no question of saying that it is an imposition only on republican paramilitaries; it is in respect of all paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.
The right hon. Gentleman said that there were understandable anxieties and that people would be expected to admit to an Executive people who are fully armed and to take their word on trust. It is important to make two points.
First, the benefit of the agreement that we have is that people would not be able to carry on sitting in an Executive fully armed. They would have to be agreeing to a process of decommissioning that got rid of all the weapons by the agreed date, which is May 2000. The problem with the Hillsborough declaration was that it asked for one token act of decommissioning, and no guaranteed process after that.
Secondly, people say that we must take Sinn Fein on trust. The whole agreement of last Friday is based on the simple principle that neither side will take the other on trust. We may as well face up to that; that trust does not exist, for perfectly understandable reasons. Therefore, the purpose of the agreement is to build in guarantees, certainty. So, there is the certainty for the republicans that the inclusive Executive will be set up, and the certainty for Unionists that they will not be expected to carry on sitting in the Executive with those who are not giving up their weapons. We have tried to build in certainty, not trust.
The right hon. Gentleman asked us to say that, if there were to be a default by Sinn Fein, we would invite the other parties to go forward without it. I say categorically that we would certainly be doing that--as long as people understand that I cannot force parties to form a Government together. I cannot force some of the parties now to get into government with the other parties, but I can certainly provide the basis for a way forward and say that the party that is in default in the agreement should be the one that is punished. There is no doubt about that; we can make that very clear.
The release of prisoners is governed by the legislation that is set out, and a range of factors are to be taken into account, including the issues about which we are talking. I make the following point about maximum penalties. At the present time, we simply do not know whether people will decommission. My point is, whatever they say, whatever they have said to us and whatever indications they have given, I understand perfectly well why people will not accept undertakings, words, statements or any of the rest of it. If we do not put this agreement to thetest and find out literally within days whether decommissioning will happen, we will never know. The republicans will say, "We might have, if we had been given the chance," and the Unionists will be left without the knowledge of whether the republicans ever would have done so.
I believe one thing absolutely and sincerely: we will never get this Executive to work unless the obligation to decommission is accepted and carried through. In the legislation, we must build in proper failsafes and guarantees so that we give this thing a chance to work, but do not leave the Unionists or, indeed, any other democrats, in an Executive in which people keep a private army and intend to use it.
Mr. Paddy Ashdown (Yeovil):
I congratulate the Prime Minister, the Taoiseach and all others involved on retrieving hope from what looked like pretty irretrievable despair at the end of last week. Does not the Good Friday agreement remain the only blueprint for peace in Ireland, and the Belfast agreement the only route to it? With that in mind, is it not important that all sides, perhaps especially the Unionists, consider this agreement in detail rather than peremptorily dismissing it, as that would damage not only peace in Northern Ireland but very possibly the Unionists' cause as well? Does the Prime Minister agree, however, that he has some work to do to reassure the Unionist community about it? Will he therefore provide a few more details on the following three areas?
First, will the Prime Minister give more details about the timetable for decommissioning and the role of General de Chastelain? Secondly, will he be a little more precise about how long the Unionists will be asked to sit in an Executive before the IRA gives dependable and concrete assurances by way of action on its commitment to decommission before 2000? Lastly, will he assure us that the failsafe will not bring down the whole devolutionary structure and that, if one party defaults--whether IRA or any other terrorists--the others will not only be able to go ahead but will do so with the Government's help, support and good wishes?
The Prime Minister:
First, it is important again to point out that there will be no decommissioning if we do
"will suspend the operation of the institutions set up by the Agreement."
Does the Prime Minister agree that that could punish democratic politicians for the failure of paramilitaries to decommission? Will he therefore expand on his comments on the radio this morning, when he said that, if the IRA failed to state its intention to decommission within days,
"it's open to us all to formulate a new way forward without Sinn Fein"?
Will the Prime Minister confirm that, in those circumstances, he would seek the suspension from the Assembly of Sinn Fein and any loyalist paramilitary groups? Will he further confirm that the Secretary of State
would use the power given her in the Good Friday agreement to invite the Assembly to form a new Executive without Sinn Fein? That is not to say simply that it could do so, but that the Secretary of State would use her power to invite it to do so--that is the difference in what I am asking.
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