IF we ever reach a situation where the men of violence are handing in their weapons we won't get a single weapon unless there is an amnesty, the Minister for Justice told the Select Committee on Legislation and Security yesterday. "We may not like it but that's the reality," she said.
Ms Owen was speaking during the committee stage of the Decommissioning Bill 1996, which was amended and agreed by the committee.
Mr Des O'Malley (PD) had proposed a number of amendments seeking to insert the word "proposed" before "agreement" and "commission". He pointed out that as yet there was no agreement between the British and Irish governments establishing a commission on decommissioning. There would soon be an election in Britain, and the new government might not want such an agreement. The Bill, as worded, was inaccurate, and could be challenged later.
Ms Owen said the Bill was purely aspirational, and aimed at establishing the bona fides of the two governments. It would not come into effect until there was an agreement between them. Her advice was that the wording was perfectly legal. However, she undertook to have it looked at again, and Mr O'Malley withdrew his amendments.
Referring to the list of circumstances under which legal proceedings would not be taken against people involved in decommission ing, Mr O'Malley proposed linking the four circumstances with the word "or". Ms Owen said that all the conditions should be taken together, so that they should in fact be linked by the word "and".
Mr O'Malley accepted this, and withdrew a further amendment.
The committee agreed to send the Bill, as amended, to the Dail.