Preliminary Bilateral Meeting with the Unionist Delegation on Friday 3 May 1991

1. Practical Arrangements

(a) It was noted that there were some issues with practical arrangements but it was hoped these would settle down.

(b) Allowances - legal advice would be paid for up to £5,000 per party per strand, with consideration given to special propositions if necessary. Parties would receive £400 a week for secretarial support. Allowances for delegates would be subject to the five hour rule and were only payable for the days on which plenary or bilateral meetings actually took place.

(c) Telephones - Mr D J R Hill to make arrangements so that delegates could make international calls.

(d) Media arrangements had been put in place such that no-one need speak to the press unless they wanted to. The proposition of press photography was rejected.

(e) Statement to the press - The Unionist delegation would not speak to the Press after the meeting.

2. Procedural Matters

(a) Timing of meetings - Plenary meetings should take place on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10.30 to 12.45 and from 2.30 to 5.00 pm with additional sessions in the evenings and on Thursdays as necessary. Since Monday 6 May was lost to a Bank Holiday, meetings should be held on Thursday 9 May. 1 July should be a dies non because of the Somme commemorations.

3. Key Issues

(a) Unionist Position:

Phase A

-Status of Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland's position within the UK)

-Relationship with Westminster (The method of dealing with Northern Irish non-transferred matters at Westminster)

Phase B

-Subjects to be transferred (The range of departmental responsibilities to be devolved -

including security)

-Powers of devolved body (Administrative and legislative)

-Method of Election (Including number of seats etc.)

-The Administration's Modus Operandi (Including role of minorities and function of committees)

-Safeguards and Rights (Including Rights of Appeal, Override Powers and a Bill of Rights)

-Financial Arrangements (Block grant, power to raise local taxes, EC funds etc.)

-Permanence of Arrangements (Are any artificial elements to be permanent or is the structure evolutionary?)

-Acceptability of Proposals (Consideration of the means of obtaining endorsement from the people of Northern Ireland)

(b) UK Government position

- Extent of powers (executive or legislative or both?);

- Extent of responsibilities (matters to be devolved?);

- Means of exercising executive responsibilities (committee system, executive, other?);

- Nature and extent of the role of representatives of the two parts of the community, and possible safeguards for the minority community;

- Arrangements for the protection of individual and community rights;

- Legislative arrangements (procedures in Northern Ireland, procedures at Westminster);

- Type of institution;

- Security matters (extent of local political influence over law and order matters);

- Financial arrangements and resources;

- Relationship with the Secretary of State and UK Government system;

- Relationship with other bodies (District Councils, Boards, etc); and

- EC matters.

4. The Order in Which They Might Be Addressed

(a) The words of the Secretary of State's statement on 26 March were beyond peradventure; no one would be asked to sign up to a settlement in strand one until they had seen the whole package.

(b) The Unionist position was that it would only be appropriate for the Irish Government to endorse strands two and three at the end of the process.

(c) Articles 2 and 3 remained an obstacle to progress for the Unionist delegations.

5. Handling of the initial plenary sessions

(a) Parties would have an opportunity to make an initial statement in whatever guise they chose; the Secretary of State would then take responsibility for pulling together a basis upon which to move forward.

(b) The Unionist parties would make separate statements at the opening plenary session.

(c) Statements would be made in alphabetical order by party.

6. Venue for Strand 2

(a) Unionist position - Strand 2 should take place in London. Talks must begin in London; later, if progress was made, Talks might be held elsewhere.

(b) Government Suggestion - A formal opening meeting might be held in Armagh (without photographs or handshakes) and that after that the venue of the talks might alternate between London and Dublin. There were several ways in which the decision about which to visit first could be reached, including tossing a coin, and the whole scheme had the merit of removing any symbolism from the location of the talks.

(b) Government Suggestion - A formal opening meeting might be held in Armagh (without photographs or handshakes) and that after that the venue of the talks might alternate between London and Dublin. There were several ways in which the decision about which to visit first could be reached, including tossing a coin, and the whole scheme had the merit of removing any symbolism from the location of the talks.

(c) The question of the venue of Strand 2 would need to be resolved before Strand 1 talks could commence.