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Northern Ireland Arms Decommissioning Act 1997 (Amnesty Period) Order 2006

My Lords, I too thank the Minister for introducing the order. It will take longer to achieve total decommissioning than we had hoped so the amnesty must be extended. It has always been recognised that decommissioning is a process—no one ever expected the paramilitaries to decommission all their weapons at once. However, the Good Friday agreement talks about the total disarmament of all paramilitary groups, and that is what we are aiming for. The decommissioning of IRA weapons last September was a truly significant milestone in the political process in Northern Ireland, and we very much welcomed that act. However, we were very concerned to read in the latest report of the Independent Monitoring Commission that the Provisional IRA may not have decommissioned the   totality of its weapons. The report states, at paragraph 3.32:"““We have since received reports that not all PIRA’s weapons and ammunition were handed over for decommissioning in September. These reports are not able to indicate precisely what is the nature or volume of any remaining weapons but suggest two things: first, that there is a range of different kinds of weapons and ammunition; second, that the material goes beyond what might possibly have been expected to have missed decommissioning, such as a limited number of handguns kept for personal protection or some items the whereabouts of which were no longer known””." While we welcome the aspects of the report that demonstrate the progress which has been made, the PIRA’s continued involvement in organised crime and refusal to lift threats against those who have been exiled will call into question the republican movement’s willingness to embrace full democracy and the rule of law. We remain deeply disappointed at the lack of decommissioning there has been from loyalist paramilitary groups. Many of these groups are seriously involved in organised crime and continue to carry out paramilitary assaults in Northern Ireland. Following the statement in October last year from the LVF that it would stand down its military units, has there been any contact between the IICD and the LVF? What are the Government doing to encourage other loyalist groups to engage with the IICD? We do not believe that in a democratic society there is any place for illegally held weapons and have always called for full decommissioning by both loyalist and dissident republican paramilitary groups. We have been supportive of the progress that has been made on this issue to date. We recognise that decommissioning is a process and that no paramilitary group was going to decommission all its weapons at once. Therefore, we urge the Government to put pressure on loyalist paramilitary groups to move away from crime and to decommission their weapons. We support the order.