Quill
  1. Overview: Northern Ireland Brooke/Mayhew Talks 1991-1992
  2. Full Record: Northern Ireland Brooke/Mayhew Talks 1991-1992
  3. Committee:Office of the Strand 1 Chairman (British Government Delegation)
  4. Session: 1992-06-04 09:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE_FROM

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.

Office of the Strand 1 Chairman (British Government Delegation)

In order to adequately reflect the role of the Chairman and his staff in re-drafting documents and controlling the flow of information during bilateral negotiations, we are representing them as a separate committee. In contrast to other Quill negotiations, in these Talks much of the actual work of negotiation and making proposals took place in bilateral meetings between the Chairman and the party delegations. The minutes of these sessions have been preserved in the same format as the minutes of the plenary sessions, and the sessions are modelled from the minutes as separate Committees (British Government/Alliance Bilaterals, etc.). The Chairman would move between these meetings, reporting on the positions of the other delegations and trying to reach accommodation. It is beyond the scope of the current project to model all the internal government meetings which took place during the Talks (although documentation for at least some of them exists in the National Archives), but we can draw on evidence within the sources we are using to show that proposals and agendas for the bilaterals were agreed within the Government team. For example, in a particular round of meetings, the Chairman will open the meeting with a near-identical agenda and summary of the current position of the other parties. To adequately model the fact that the flow of ideas between the delegations was filtered by the Chairman in this way, we have set up a committee called the 'Office of the Chairman' to show the conclusions of each bilateral discussion passing through the Chairman's Office and being redrafted before being passed on to the next delegation.

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Document introduced in:

Session 14107: 1992-06-04 09:00:00

A number of Government papers are created on this date and circulated to the delegates ahead of the sub-Committee meetings. These are modelled as originating from the Office of the Chairman.

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Checklist of Points Touched on in the Sub-Committee 1 June 1992

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

Checklist of Points touched on in the Sub-Committee on 1 June

1. Under any of the proposed institutional structures there would be a need to agree a hierarchy of types of decision which could be taken by officials, Heads of Departments and the members of any Executive, Executive Committee or whatever.

2. It was not too difficult to think of ways in which minorities could be protected by, eg, a requirement for a weighted majority vote in certain categories of cases or an arrangement which would allow a sizeable majority to refer a particular measure for wider (or outside) scrutiny; but it was not so easy to see how a policy objective supported by a minority supported by a minority cold [sic] be guaranteed a fair hearing.

3. It was noted that under any system there would be merit in establishing an Assembly Public Accounts Committee to consider reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General.

4. In respect of matters which were not transferred it was agreed that there should be an input to the Secretary of State from any elected body or bodies in the new institutional structure.

5. Specifically on law and order/security matters some interest was shown in a graded approach which secured the greatest possible role for local representatives while acknowledging the particular difficulties and sensitivities.

6. On EC matters it was generally acknowledged that there was widespread public concern to ensure that Northern Ireland got the best possible deal out of the EC. It was agreed there would be advantage in local institutions having some input to deliberations in the Council of Ministers. The possibility of securing solid benefits for Northern Ireland as a result of co-operating with the authorities in the Republic on EC initiatives (for example in agriculture) should be considered despite possible presentational difficulties for some parties.

Decisions yet to be taken

None

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