Republicans must look to the contradiction in their position on decommissioning before asking if the unionist response to implementing the Belfast Agreement has gone far enough, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said in London yesterday.
The act of decommissioning was, for some, a "necessary, concrete signal" that the war was truly over and there would be no going back to violence, but unionists must also ask themselves if their response to the IRA ceasefire had been "generous".
Mr Bruton was speaking after attending the annual lunch of the Ireland Fund of Great Britain, which raises funds for young people in the Republic, Northern Ireland and Britain. He said that following this week's meeting between the Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, it was right that London, Dublin and Washington should refocus on decommissioning, because it was an obstacle to progress.
Decommissioning was not an "artificial" obstacle being raised to create difficulties for republicans or loyalists. It was being raised, not because the weapons were militarily significant, or for an artificial political purpose, but because decommissioning represented a tangible signal that violence was over for good.
The contradiction for the republican movement was that Sinn Fein had made a clear political commitment to decommissioning by signing up to the Belfast Agreement, yet the IRA had said that it would not decommission its arsenal of weapons. Essentially, the republican movement should "start in your own backyard," before seeking the trust of others.
In his speech to the Ireland Fund of Great Britain, Mr Bruton predicted that Britain would no longer be the economic powerhouse of Europe if it remained outside monetary union. Currency instability, if Britain failed to join the euro, could inhibit the growth of an all-island economy in Ireland, which was one of the economic benefits of the Belfast Agreement, he said.