Parliamentary Search

Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Maria Fyfe (Labour), on Tuesday, 8 February 2000, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 26 members in total.

DAY OF RECONCILIATION

That this House recognises the danger of decommissioning being handled wrongly; is concerned in case splits among the paramilitaries in both Loyalist and Republican ranks result in breakaways to violent minority groups; further recognises that the IRA has agreed that disarmament is a necessary objective, but abhors the idea of surrender; and therefore calls upon all parties to the Good Friday Agreement to consider a day of reconciliation, when all sides could act together, which could be done with goodwill in time for the May deadline, thus allowing the Northern Ireland Assembly to be restored as quickly as possible.

Amendments

The Early day motion has received an amendment.

DAY OF RECONCILIATION (369A1)
The Early day motion has received an amendment sponsored by Harry Barnes (primary, Labour) and tabled on Thursday, 10 February 2000. It has been signed by 4 members in total.
leave out from 'recognises' to 'and' in line 4 and insert 'that the British and Irish Governments have introduced legislation and other measures to avoid the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons being seen as any sort of surrender and humiliation but that there will probably always be a minority of those who support paramilitary organisations who will never accept any form of decommissioning; further recognises that such measures on decommissioning and new political structures have been supported by the overwhelming majority of the peoples of Ireland in referenda and decommissioning is the settled will of the Irish people and the British people, as evidenced in the referenda and in many opinion polls since; notes that there has been substantial progress on other parts of the Good Friday Agreement, including the phased early release of paramilitary prisoners as well as significant ideological change by the Republican leadership in terms of accepting the consent principle and the Mitchell principles concerning peaceful methods; believes that further demilitarisation measures by the British and Irish Governments could be expedited in a peaceful security environment without conceding any false equivalence between arms held by democratically mandated authorities and those of paramilitary organisations'.

Secondary information

Type
Early day motion
Reference
369 
369A1 
Session
1999-00
Subjects
Decommissioning Belfast Agreement IRA Northern Ireland Weapons
Link
View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk