(28 May 1991)

Procedural Guidelines for the Conduct of Strand Two

Role of Chairman

1. The independent Chairman will preside over all meetings of Strand Two. He/she will exercise his/her functions in an impartial and even-handed manner.

2. The Chairman will be responsible for the orderly conduct of business. He/she will conduct the proceedings so as to allow an opportunity for full discussion of the issues and will be guided by the objective that the outcome should be agreed by all participating Delegations. To this end, but only after consultation with the Delegations to establish that it would be regarded as helpful, the Chairman may put forward specific suggestions and proposals.

3. The Chairman will consult with participating Delegations in the exercise of his/her functions. A Steering Group and a Business Committee will be formed to facilitate such consultation.

4. The Steering Group will comprise the Chairman him/herself and the heads of the respective Delegations or their designated representatives. Is is envisaged that the Steering Group will meet with the Chairman at least once a week to review progress. Additional meetings may be held at the Chairman's discretion.

5. The Business Committee will comprise the Chairman him/herself and a designated member of each of the participating Delegations. The Committee will be available to advise the Chairman on the day-to-day exercise of his/her responsibilities and to facilitate communication between the participating Delegations and the Chairman. It is envisaged that the Committee will normally meet on days when talks are taking place.

*Note: Stand-ins are acceptable for meetings of the Steering Group and the Business Committee; membership of each body need not necessarily be the same. Business Committee may meet on days other than those on which talks were taking place.

6. In discharging his/her functions, the Chairman will confine his/her consultations to the Delegations participating in Strand Two. Any written submissions which may be received from other groups or individuals will have no status.

7. For the duration of the process the Chairman will make no public comment on the talks without prior discussion with the heads of the participating Delegations.

Conduct of Proceedings

8. The proceedings of Strand Two will be held in private.

9. The Chairman will have responsibility for the convening, postponement and adjournment of meetings, in consultation, as he/she considers appropriate, with participating Delegations. It is understood, however, that any Delegation may request an adjournment of up to 10 minutes at a time and the Chairman shall only refuse such requests if they are made with unreasonable frequency.

10. The agenda for each day’s business shall be determined by the Chairman after considering advice from the Business Committee.

11. Meetings of Strand Two will normally take place in plenary session. However, if the Chairman considers it helpful in facilitating agreement among the participants, and after consultation with the Delegations, he/she may propose other working formations at which all Delegations would be represented.

*Note: The phrase "other working was designed to cover derivatives of the type of group organised the previous week by the Minister of State in a different context. Maximum flexibility was envisaged.

12. The Chairman may at any time seek a bilateral meeting with any participating Delegation. Equally, it is envisaged that the Chairman would accede to any reasonable request for a bilateral meeting from any delegation.

*Note: A record of such a meeting would be available only to the participating delegation, but the fact that a meeting had taken place would be known to all.

13. All remarks shall be addressed through the Chairman. Time limits on interventions may be imposed at the Chairman's discretion.

14. The Chairman's ruling on all individual questions of procedure and order shall be final.

15. A record of the proceedings of Strand Two will be maintained under the general direction of the Chairman and circulated to Delegations participating in the meeting. Approval of the records will be a matter for the Business Committee. Any lack of agreement on the record of any meeting would be resolved by the Chairman; if necessary any remaining dispute could be recorded in the record of the subsequent meeting.

16. Changes and additions to these rules of procedure shall be made only with the agreement of all participating Delegations.

Inter-relationship of Strand Two with Strands One and Three

17. It is accepted by all participating Delegations that nothing will be finally agreed in any strand until everything is agreed in the talks as a whole.

*Note: for the purpose of this document, the term "participating Delegations" refers to the two Governments and the four Northern Ireland parties: Alliance, SDLP, UDUP, UUP.

[Editor's Note: This note appears as a footnote on p.1 of the document.]

Additional Points

(i) the decision to move the second strand from London to Belfast and then to Dublin would be taken by the Chairman under the terms of paragraph 9 and within the constraints of the 14 May document;

and

(iii) there was no great issue of principle parts of the document were guidelines and which parts were standing orders.