Motions tabled.. despite IMC recommendations

The Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, has put forward two motions for debate in the Commons on 8th February, the first is to reinstate Sinn Féin MP’s parliamentary allowances, the second is to grant the party access to “financial assistance for the party’s representative business”, as availed by other parties, both to be backdated to 1 November 2005 – the text of the motions should be available soon – and UTV has a report of the reaction in the Commons. Worth noting that, despite the reference in the statement’s ‘Note to Editors’ of the 7th IMC report, that particular IMC report recommended that no such moves should take place.Here’s the quote from Peter Hain’s statement –

Secretary of State Peter Hain said: “The Government is of the view that the major advances by the IRA since its statement of 28 July 2005, including decommissioning, and Sinn Fein’s commitment to the political process mean that the time is right to reinstate the allowances to encourage further political engagement at Westminster.”

Hmmm.. no mention of the assessment of PIRA involvement in organised crime..

Pete Baker