Political Talks (Hansard, 15 May 1991)

§ Mr. Brooke

[pursuant to the reply, 2 May 1991, c. 426]: On 26 March I informed the House that a basis for formal political talks concerning political development had been established. It was accepted by all the potential participants—the British and Irish Governments and the four main constitutional political parties in Northern Ireland—that the talks would take place in three strands corresponding to the three principal relationships: those within Northern Ireland; those among the people of Ireland; and those between the British and Irish Governments.

Since the political talks began on 30 April there have been a number of bilateral exchanges between me and the political parties involved about a range of practical and procedural issues raised by the participants, concerning strands two and three. In addressing these issues I have maintained close contact with the Government of the Republic of Ireland which is, of course, a participant in both those strands.

Yesterday afternoon, I circulated to the parties a paper which indicated how these practical and procedural issues would be handled, and invited the parties to let me have their responses by 10 o'clock this morning. The text of that paper follows this reply.

The Alliance party of Northern Ireland and the Social and Democratic Labour party informed me that they were content without qualification that we should now proceed to plenary sessions on the basis that the relevant practical and procedural matters would be dealt with as indicated in this paper. The Irish Government were also content that matters should proceed on this basis.

I had a number of exchanges with the leaders of the two Unionist parties both before and after 10 o'clock this morning. They sought a meeting with the Prime Minister on the basis that this might provide sufficient clarification and reassurance to enable them to proceed with talks on the basis suggested.

There was a full discussion of the issues and in the light of the Unionist parties' agreement in principle to work the procedure on the basis of my paper, subject to clarification of detailed points with them as well as the other participants, I plan to consult the other participants to see if they are able to proceed on this basis.

Following is the text of the paper:

POLITICAL TALKS

Practical Issues Concerning Strands Two and Three

1. There has been extensive discussion of the venue for strand two, and other related practical questions, over the last two weeks.
2. In the light of that, with the benefit of the views expressed, and after close consultation with the Irish Government, I have decided to indicate the basis on which these talks would be held.

Strand Two

3. All meetings of strand two will have an independent chairman whose identity will be announced by the two governments after consultation with other participating parties.
4. Opening plenary meeting of strand two to be held in London.
5. Bulk of substantive exchanges in strand two to be held in Northern Ireland in a location to be determined. (It will of course also be open to the Chairman and the participants to hold non-plenary meetings wherever suits their mutual convenience.)
6. A plenary meeting of the strand two discussions to be held in Dublin towards the end of June.

Strand Three

7. While participating parties remain free to discuss strand three issues with the governments, strand three discussions will be concerned with the relationship between the two governments, and will take place between the two governments:

—other participating parties will be kept in touch with progress during strand three by regular liaison
—the two governments will meet other participating parties at their request for further discussion of strand three issues while strand three is taking place
—the outcome of strand three will be considered by all the participants alongside the outcome of the other two strands and nothing will be finally agreed in any strand until everything is agreed in the talks as a whole.

£ thousands
	Great Grimsby	Yorkshire and Humberside	South East and London
	1989	1990	1989	1990	1989	1990
Terraced house¹	n/a	n/a	32.7	37.1	77.4	72.6
Council houses²	21.3	27.3	20.8	26.8	59.5	60.2
¹ Average price (excluding sales to sitting tenants) from the Department's 5 per cent, sample survey of Building Society mortgage completions.
² Average undiscounted price of dwellings sold to sitting tenants.

The available information on distribution of stock is as follows:

	Per cent. of total stock
Terraced houses (owner occupied)¹
Great Grimsby	n/a
Yorkshire and Humberside	18
South East and London	19
Council houses²
Great Grimsby	21
Yorkshire and Humberside	25
South East and London	19
¹ Data from the 1986 English House Condition Survey.
² Data on all council houses at 1 April 1990 from the Housing Investment Programme (HIP) return.