Today's meeting is for the purpose of dealing with the Committee Stage of the Decommissioning Bill, 1996, which has been referred to us by Dáil Éireann. I welcome the Minister for Justice, Deputy Nora Owen, and officials from her Department, Mr. Paul Hickey and Mr. Brendan Callaghan. We hope to conclude our deliberations on the Bill today.
The Bill seeks to enable effect to be given to the report of the International Body on Decommissioning. The Northern Ireland Arms Decommissioning Bill, 1996, will make similar provisions in relation to Northern Ireland and Britain. The International Body, which was chaired by Senator George Mitchell, was established by the Irish and British Governments in November 1995 to provide an independent assessment of the decommissioning issue. The terms of reference of the body were that it was to report on the arrangements necessary for the removal, from the political equation, of arms held by organisations who supported their use for political purposes and to identify and advise a suitable and effective method for full and verifiable decommissioning. The report of the body was presented to the British and Irish Governments on 22 January 1996.
I welcome Deputy O'Malley to the committee who is substituting for Deputy O'Donnell.