Northern Ireland Brooke/Mayhew Talks 1991-1992

WORK IN PROGRESS - IN THE FINAL STAGES OF EDITING A series of talks launched by Peter Brooke, Secretary of State for Northern in Ireland, which began in April 1991, and were carried on intermittently by Brooke and his successor, Patrick Mayhew, until November 1992.

British-Unionist Talks

Meetings between the British Government, the UUP and the DUP. Dates of meetings created from source material, but records of discussions not currently available to us.

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Document introduced in:

Session 12727: 1991-05-28 14:10:00

Meeting between the Government Team and the Unionist delegations to discuss the draft Procedural Guidelines for the conduct of Strand 2.

Document View:

Procedural Guidelines for the Conduct of Strand Two (as Amended at a Meeting with the Joint Unionist Delegation on 28 May 1991)

There are 0 proposed amendments related to this document on which decisions have not been taken.

(28 May 1991 - as amended by meeting with the joint Unionist delegations at 1410)

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, with the agreement of one or more Delegations, bring forward specific suggestions.

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

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.

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. However, should the need arise, he/she will wish to seek the approval of the heads of participating Delegations before doing so.

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. In addition to the meetings in London and Dublin, other substantive meetings of Strand Two will also take place in plenary session at Stormont. There shall also be non-plenary meetings between the Chairman and all, some or any of the Delegations should he or the Delegation(s) concerned require it.

[Editor's Note: Paragraph 12 having been removed, the numbers in this document are now out of sink. This will be corrected when the revised version of the Guidelines is published after the meeting. Throughout this meeting, however, the original numbering is used by delegates who are referring to the draft proposal in front of them.]

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.

Staffing

[Add additional paragraph:] The last plenary meeting in Strand Two also provides an opportunity for any of the participating parties to put to the Governments their views on Strand Three issues.

Decisions yet to be taken

None

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