The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, moved yesterday to take the focus off his party's position on the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Bill by saying that it was now up to the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, to use all the powers in the Bill linking the release of prisoners to decommissioning.
He said Dr Mowlam should use the Bill "to remove from the list of bodies benefiting from the early release scheme those who are not co-operating fully with the decommissioning commission, in implementing the decommissioning section of the agreement".
He emphasised the need for the implementation of the decommissioning provisions and said Dr Mowlam should not let people off the hook.
Mr Trimble said that while three out of four amendments to the Bill proposed by the UUP had effectively been adopted all the problems
had not been solved. It was not the end of the matter as far as the party was concerned.
He said he would not be in the House of Commons for the vote [last night] as he was campaigning in the Assembly election. The "probability" was that he would abstain if it had been possible for him to be there.
The Ulster Unionist MPs have been divided on the issue, and Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said earlier yesterday that he would vote against the Bill. Mr Trimble said the split in the party was healing. "Some hangover exists from the referendum difficulties and it will be some time before all of that disappears." The situation was improving, but there was no magic wand to make all the problems disappear overnight.
The Ulster Unionist leader also played down the findings of an Irish Times opinion poll yesterday which indicated that support for the party had fallen by six percentage points to 27 per cent.
"I must also say that I have always treated these opinion polls with a pinch of salt because they are telephone polls, and telephone sampling has certain weaknesses.
"Furthermore, they are opinion polls carried out by Harris Research which, if I am not mistaken, is an English company, which means that people in Northern Ireland have been phoned up by people in England with English accents." He said this could have an impact on the responses.
At a press conference yesterday morning, Mr Trimble said the UUP would put forward proposals for "the most radical examination and restructuring of the administration in Northern Ireland in over a quarter of a century" after the election.
A fundamental review of the structure of government departments and the quango system which had developed over 25 years of direct rule was needed. This would "counteract the years of remote and impersonal government" people had endured under direct rule. The growth in quangos had been a feature of direct rule where "appointed persons" replaced elected representatives.
He said the review should be completed by October and he did not believe shadow ministers could be appointed until the review was carried out. It was only after the departmental responsibilities were determined that people could begin to shadow departments.
He said this would not necessarily put back the target date of October 31st for identifying areas of North-South co-operation.