There was no "fudge" or intended fudge on the issue of decommissioning, the Minister for Foreign Affairs told the House. Mr Andrews emphasised that the Taoiseach and he had said that decommissioning "had to happen". The issue was now one of "timing and interpretation".
He said that the self-destruction of arms by the paramilitaries was "an approach that has obvious potential, given the sensitivities and difficulties that surround the decommissioning issue".
Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, had said that the best service the Dail could render was to stop fudging the issue and make it clear. "We know it's a difficult issue for the republican movement", he said. "We know it's difficult for some loyalists. But, difficult as it is, we cannot fudge it. There has to be some commencement to decommissioning so that they show their bona fides and so the executive can be started."
It was implicit in the Belfast Agreement that the decommissioning process had to start, just as it was implicit that the release of prisoners would take place over the period concerned. "Nobody is asking for it to be finished or completed. It must be started before Sinn Fein take their places in the executive."
Mr Mitchell asked if the Minister had confirmed from Sinn Fein or others that the IRA had changed its opinion that it would never disarm. Mr Andrews said that the "resolution of this very difficult issue" lay in trust between Sinn Fein and the UUP.
Mr Mitchell said it was not a question of finding a formula of words, but of beginning the decommissioning process.
The Minister said that the problem would only be resolved by "give and take" on both sides. The mechanism for dealing with decommissioning was the international decommissioning mission. "It's important that we allow him [Gen John de Chastelain] to get on with the task." He was working actively with Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness and the representatives of the other parties to ensure that decommissioning took place within the two-year timeframe set out in the agreement. "But, in the meantime, if decommissioning can be achieved over the next number of weeks, that is sooner rather than later."
Labour's spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, asked if the Government was seeking a statement from the IRA that it was prepared to decommission. This would be a reversal of a statement made three times that the IRA did not ever intend to decommission.
Mr De Rossa asked repeatedly if it was the Government's position that there could be no executive without Sinn Fein and that Sinn Fein could not join the executive without progress on decommissioning.
Mr Andrews said it was a question of trust between the two sides. The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, and Mr McGuinness had made a critical contribution to the search for peace and were committed to the full implementation of all the terms of the agreement, including decommissioning.
The Minister welcomed the vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Tuesday which had endorsed the report of the First and Deputy First Ministers, Mr David Trimble and Mr Seamus Mallon.
"It represents a major step forward in the process of implementing the agreement. It sets in motion the final steps towards the establishment of all the new institutions of the agreement", Mr Andrews said.