The Taoiseach is proposing the removal of Articles 2 and 3 from the Constitution on Sunday week, the day powers are devolved to the new Northern Ireland executive.
Government sources have confirmed that, in line with The Way Forward proposals agreed between Mr Ahern and the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, in Belfast last Friday, it is expected that the North/South ministerial council and other all-Ireland dimensions of the Belfast Agreement will come into effect on that day. It is not expected that the process of the decommissioning of IRA arms will have commenced by July 18th.
The Government's decision to initiate the removal of Articles 2 and 3, which contain the controversial territorial claim to Northern Ireland, is clearly intended to help Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble to win support for the two governments' proposals.
The proposal to remove Articles 2 and 3, and their substitution with new clauses, was passed in the referendum on the Belfast Agreement in May of last year. An unusual constitutional mechanism was used in the wording of the referendum to make the changes conditional on powers being devolved to the executive and the North/South institutional elements of the agreement.
The Belfast Agreement required the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister to make a declaration that all institutions of the agreement had been fully established before it would come into effect. Special legislation had to be introduced a couple of months ago to extend the one-year deadline for the removal of the articles.
To coincide with the latest Way Forward proposals, Mr Ahern announced in the Seanad last night: "As soon as devolution comes into effect on 18 July, the constitutional changes in both Ireland and Britain will come into force"
This would clearly envisage the Taoiseach notifying Mr Blair in writing of the completion of the requirements for entry into force of the agreement.
The changes to Articles 2 and 3 would come into effect on the same day that the devolution order, due to come before the British Parliament on July 16th, comes into effect on July 18th.
