Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Taoiseach said he did not expect within the next day or so a definitive response from the IRA to the speech by the president of Sinn Féin, Mr. Gerry Adams. Putting the most benign construction on the speech, will the Taoiseach indicate what constitutes a reasonable time to wait for a response? Does the Taoiseach agree that the issue is not whether Sinn Féin should break away from the IRA, as suggested by a number of commentators and posited in a newspaper poll which asked if the time had come to leave the IRA behind, but that we ought to ask if the time has come for the republican movement to disband it? It is a different question. If it is not asked, the work of the past ten years will not advance us as significantly as intended.

The Taoiseach gave a qualified welcome to the statement by Mr. Gerry Adams and I join him in that. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform says decommissioning is no longer an issue but an embarrassment to the IRA which holds an arsenal of weapons for which there is no use. He said it is the strategic objective of the republican movement to maintain small arms and the wherewithal to enforce its wish in communities and raise funds. There are significant issues to address in this context. Presumably the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform speaks with the benefit of intelligence. As Deputy Kenny said, most people who voted for the Good Friday Agreement thought these issues had been resolved. Is it not timely to resolve them now without equivocation, doubt or ambiguity about what has been decided?

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