Former paramilitaries would have to wait for five years on release from prison and would have to make a declaration of acceptance of the principles of non-violence before serving on policing bodies, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Paul Murphy, said yesterday.
Explaining his new policing announcement during a meeting of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, Mr Murphy said such measures should provide considerable safeguards for those worried about the proposals.
There had to be these "acts of completion", that is, an end to violence and paramilitary activity and a move to a peaceful democratic society. He said he hoped this could take place before the Assembly elections in May.
Mr Murphy told the delegates, parliamentarians from assemblies in Britain and Ireland, he did not think the parties in the North were as far apart as sometimes seemed, but it was what they did next that counted.
They could continue to be bent by the prejudices of the past or they could realise things had changed and move on.
But it would not be by inching forward year by year as in the talks, which had to be slow and careful. Now the timescale had to be different as the parties had been together before, he said.
It was clear, Mr Murphy said, that the process could no longer be sustained without a complete and total cessation of violence, which was the single most effective tool of those against the agreement.
Answering questions from delegates the Secretary of State said there were no plans to change the election date, but the three Cs, Colombia, Castlereagh and Castle Buildings, had to be addressed to restore public confidence.
He said he believed Sinn Féin was committed to the agreement, but the parties had to be satisfied that sufficient trust existed to get the institutions up again, and this meant not just decommissioning but a declaration that the war was over.
The only way forward was through the Good Friday agreement.
During yesterday morning's session Mr Seamus Kirk, the chairman of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party, suggested that gardaí be allowed patrol in the North as such policing would provide an ideal opportunity for confidence-building.
The presence of gardaí in areas like Crossmaglen could go a long way toward reassuring people who were reluctant to accept the new policing arrangements.
Mr Kirk also suggested the harmonisation of traffic penalties on both sides of the Border. Under the present system, he said, drivers from the North who were caught speeding in the Republic did not incur penalty points on their licence.
The Labour peer, Lord Dubs, said the body should seek a meeting with the relevant ministers to discuss harmonising the law in the two jurisdictions.
The Sinn Féin TD for Louth, Mr Arthur Morgan, spoke of the moves made by Sinn Féin and the IRA under the Good Friday agreement and criticised those who said that if the IRA disappeared there would be no problem and all could live happily ever after.
The body unanimously passed a motion supporting the Belfast Agreement, lamenting the suspension of the Northern institutions and welcoming the determination of the two governments to press ahead with the agreement.