Kenny calls for loyalist paramilitaries to follow suit
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said completion of the IRA’s decommissioning had removed one of the key obstacles to political progress in the North and fulfilled the democratic wish of the Irish people.
He called for loyalist paramilitary organisations to match yesterday’s actions.
“I hope that the completion of IRA decommissioning will be matched in the future by the loyalist paramilitary organisations and I urge these groups to re-establish contact with General de Chastelain and his colleagues.
“I also hope that the Provisional movement will soon fulfil its remaining commitments to end all paramilitary and criminal activities so that a political process based on exclusively peaceful and democratic means can be revitalised.”
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said confirmation of total decommissioning was a welcome, but long overdue, development.
Coupled with the IRA’s July stand down statement, it had the potential to “herald a new era of peaceful and democratic politics in Northern Ireland,” he said.
“The real tragedy is that had the Provisional movement lived up to its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement and delivered decommissioning by May 2000, then the executive, the assembly and the cross-|Border bodies would, in all likelihood, be still functioning and now firmly bedded down.”
Mr Rabbitte said previous IRA failures to decommission, and events such as the Northern Bank robbery and the Robert McCartney murder, meant yesterday’s events could not have the same impact they would have had if they had happened in May 2000.
“Notwithstanding these reservations, I hope that all parties in Northern Ireland will recognise today’s events as the positive development it is and that it will lead to the reopening of negotiations with a view to the earliest possible re-establishment of the assembly.”
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said it was an important milestone on the road to the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
“Three important elements still need completion before the Good Friday Agreement can be implemented in full. These are loyalist decommissioning, Sinn Féin signing up to the Police Commission, and Unionists coming into government,” he said.
