HC Deb 01 March 1999 vol 326 cc585-6W
Mr. Wilshire

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will make it her policy to oppose Sinn Fein members taking up ministerial jobs in Northern Ireland before a start is made on decommissioning their arms and explosives. [72605]

Marjorie Mowlam

The Government's policy on the Belfast Agreement is clear—all parties must live up to all their commitments. This means that decommissioning must take place and it means that the new institutions of government in Northern Ireland must be established.

As my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, said in response to a question from the right hon. Member for Upper Bann (Mr. Trimble), 24 February 1999, Official Report, column 388, the whole of the Agreement must be implemented in full and we must know that violence has been given up for good. It is unreasonable to expect people to sit down together unless they know that that is the case.