§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assurances he can give that the stockpiles of IRA weapons and explosives have not been transferred into the possession of the Real IRA and Continuity IRA. [11399]
§ Jane KennedyI receive daily reports on the security situation from my security advisers and would be advised of any information that came to light indicating that IRA arms had been passed on to dissident republican groups.
The international arms inspectors, Martti Ahtisaari and Cyril Ramaphosa, had stated in their reports that the arms dumps they inspected had not been tampered with and remained secure. Subsequently we have had actual decommissioning of IRA weapons.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement about future acts of decommissioning; and by what date he expects the process of decommissioning to be completed. [11398]
§ Jane KennedyFuture decommissioning events are a matter for the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and the representatives of the various paramilitary organisations.
Decommissioning is only one part of the Good Friday Agreement of which we can now say that implementation of every aspect is underway. Full implementation of the Good Friday agreement in all its aspects is a task that will take some time to accomplish.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what age and in what condition the illegally held weapons and explosives were which were decommissioned by the IRA; and if they can be quantified according to type; [11397]
(2) what quantities of weapons and explosives have been decommissioned by the IRA (a) under the Good Friday Agreement and (b) under the decision on 23 October to engage in decommissioning; and by what means IRA weapons and explosives were decommissioned. [11396]
§ Jane KennedyThe Independent International Commission on Decommissioning stated in their report that they have witnessed an event in which the IRA has put a quantity of arms completely beyond use. They confirm the material in question includes arms, ammunition and explosives.
176WThat also means that under paragraph 11 of the decommissioning scheme made in August 2001, the Commission has taken a record of the arms decommissioned and has verified the information on that record, although it is the Commission's judgment on this occasion, that such information must remain confidential.
The Government and all of the pro-Agreement parties have said throughout the process that the details of the actual process should be left to the Decommissioning Commission.
The Government accept the integrity of the Commission's judgment.
§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the percentage of the IRA's arsenal which has been put beyond use. [15272]
§ Jane KennedyThe Independent International Commission on Decommissioning reported on 23 October that it had witnessed a quantity of IRA arms being put beyond use according to the terms of the decommissioning schemes and regulations. However, in the interest of furthering the process of putting all arms beyond use, the Commission declined to provide further details. Accordingly, it has not been possible to assess the percentage of the provisional IRA's weaponry involved.
The Commission's mandate under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement is to facilitate the decommissioning of all paramilitary arms. The Government have every confidence in General de Chastelain and his colleagues and respects their wishes on how best to proceed to fulfil their mandate.