Orders of the Day — Northern Ireland Arms Decommissioning (Amendment) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:37 pm on 17 December 2001.

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Photo of Chris Grayling Chris Grayling Conservative, Epsom and Ewell 4:37, 17 December 2001

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way and apologise for having missed the first few moments of his speech. Does he not understand the difficulty faced by Members on this side of the House? This week, we are being asked to make significant decisions about the future of decommissioning and the future of Parliament's relationship with Sinn Fein-IRA, but we are being asked to do so in a vacuum because we have no clear idea about whether what has happened is a single step or the first of many steps. Our concern is that we are being asked to move further and further on, but we have no clear indication of what comes next and nor, apparently, does the Secretary of State.