Dail to be recalled for work on NI if needed

The Dail will be recalled during the summer if necessary, to deal with any legislation required for the successful completion of the peace process.

The House adjourned yesterday until September 29th but the Minister for Enterprise, Ms Mary O'Rourke, speaking on behalf of the Taoiseach, gave a commitment that the House would sit if required, to enact any legislation necessary arising from the past days' intensive negotiations.

At the end of a general adjournment debate, Ms O'Rourke read a statement on behalf of the Taoiseach, who was in the North.

Outlining developments in the process in the past two years and particularly in recent days, the Minister pointed to the difficulty centring around the order and sequence of the establishment of an executive and decommissioning of all paramilitary weapons.

As far as the two governments were concerned "the precise order or sequencing is not of great intrinsic importance, once it is clear that all principles will be implemented and the institutions established within the terms of the agreement".

The Taoiseach's statement reiterated the commitment to the Belfast Agreement. "It represents the only plan that is balanced and comprehensive. It would not be sensible to divert energies into other channels or into working out other alternatives. It is the Government's judgment that the potential for advancing the agreement is the only way forward."

One development of importance earlier this week was the indication by Sinn Fein that "all participants could succeed in persuading those with arms to deco m mission them in accordance with the agreement". All discussions were based on the premise that the process of decommissioning could be completed by May 2000.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said however that this "hardly warrants the description seismic". He said that since 1997 Sinn Fein and the Progressive Unionist Party had said three times that they were committed to the absolute disarmament of all paramilitary organisations.

However, while those earlier commitments were given unambiguously on behalf of Sinn Fein, its statement on Thursday night said "all of us" "could succeed". As such, he said, "it is hard to see in what direction it shifts Sinn Fein's formal position".

Mr Bruton opposed the adjournment of the Dail on the grounds that any legislative effect needed for the Government's timetable for decommissioning, should be done before the Drumcree confrontation was aggravated.

He added that the mechanisms for recalling the Dail were cumbersome and it would be better not to adjourn at all but to continue next week.

Labour's leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, assured the Government that as long as it continued to pursue "in tandem with the British administration, a balanced approach to the search for a political solution to the problems of Northern Ireland, then it can rely on the constructive support that this party has given over the past two years."