Northern Ireland Support For Decommissioning

EDM number 282 in 1995-96, proposed by David Trimble on 16/01/1996.

That this House welcomes the finding of the opinion poll published in the Belfast Telegraph on 16th January 1996 which shows that 60 per cent. of all the people in Northern Ireland think that paramilitary organisations should decommission all weapons before talks and that a further 23 per cent. think that some weapons should be decommissioned before talks; notes that in total 83 per cent. of the people of Northern Ir eland support the insistence on a beginning of a process of decommissioning before talks; welcomes in particular the finding that 40 per cent. of SDLP supporters favour total decommissioning and a further 34 per cent. some decommissioning before talks; further notes that these results are in line with a poll in the Republic of Ireland published on 10th December 1995 in which 45 per cent. of the respondents supported total decommissioning and a further 31 per cent. supported some decommissioning before talks; regrets that the SDLP and the Irish government are so out of line with the thinking of people; and calls upon them to join the insistence that all paramilitary organisations establish their commitment to exclusively peaceful methods and the democratic process so that they can in due course enter fully into political dialogue.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.