THE TAOISEACH and the British Prime Minister have agreed a position on how to deal with the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. The proposals will be put to the parties at the Stormont talks later this week.
The document, which represents the last piece of the package to be put to the republican movement in the hope of an IRA ceasefire, was agreed by Mr Bruton and Mr Blair at a 20 minute meeting in New York yesterday.
It is understood it proposes that paramilitary weapons be decommissioned during political talks, thus dropping the demand for prior decommissioning. It outlines a mechanism by which this will be done in an attempt to satisfy the republican movement that Sinn Fein will now be allowed into substantive political talks without the IRA having to hand over weapons.
The 12 page Anglo Irish document proposes the setting up of an independent body to deal with the decommissioning issue, diplomatic sources said last night.
The independent commission would be appointed by the two governments on the basis of consultations with the other parties at the Stormont talks. But it would operate independently of the governments in both jurisdictions. The commission would report to a liaison subcommittee of the talks.
The two governments also acknowledge that decommissioning requires the full cooperation of the paramilitaries themselves. There would also be a subcommittee on confidence building measures.
A key point in the document is that both London and Dublin acknowledge that their joint efforts to achieve due progress on decommissioning should be pursued alongside political negotiations and without blocking the progress of those negotiations.
Senior political sources said there was nothing in the document requiring the IRA to decommission weapons or explosives as a precondition for Sinn Fein's entry to the Stormont talks.
The document is expected to be presented to the parties in the talks at Stormont this afternoon. Mr Blair is due to discuss it this morning in separate meetings with the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, and the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume.
Mr Bruton and Mr Blair met in New York at the special session of the UN General Assembly which is reviewing progress since the Earth Summit five years ago.
We have provided every possible conceivable clarification for the republican movement," Mr Bruton told The Irish Times yesterday from New York shortly after his meeting with Mr Blair. "They can put forward no remaining reason for the continuing IRA campaign."
Last night final presentational touches were being put to the document which, according to Mr Bruton, would allow decommissioning to be "dealt with seriously without blocking the talks".
Mr Trimble again warned yesterday that his party would have to be satisfied with whatever formula was worked out on decommissioning. He would not accept the idea of "kicking it into the long grass", as some "unreformed characters" in the Irish Government wished to do, he said.
Mr Bruton said that the document agreed by the two governments was "designed to be acceptable to all parties ... There's a balance in it."
He suggested that political talks would move ahead "very soon", with or without Sinn Fein, but said it might be possible for Sinn Fein to join the talks at a later stage if there was an IRA ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Government will today hand over to the British government a dossier of evidence on the Bloody Sunday killings which has been compiled by officials from the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs.