Sinn Fein is not the wing of any other organisation, Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said. "I totally refute the erroneous accusations again made in this chamber about Sinn Fein. We are not the wing of any other organisation. We stand or fall on the basis of our electoral mandate and it is a strengthened mandate coming out of the local and EU elections.

"That seems to have caused puzzlement to some deputies, not least Deputy John Bruton who has tried to make decommissioning a precondition not only to the executive but to the election of chairs to local authorities.

"The deputies show their distance from the communities we represent when they fail to appreciate the reality that it is hard work and clear-sighted politics which has won our party support."

He said his party was committed to the implementation of the Belfast Agreement. "We have less than a week now to ensure that after a year of delay and prevarication the executive is put in place. It is clear to all that there is no decommissioning precondition to its establishment. The test now is of the willingness of the Ulster Unionist Party to share power. It is not a question of no guns, no government. It is a question of no equality, no government."

Mr O Caolain said he trusted and prayed that the remains of the so-called disappeared would be located soon. "I have no hesitation in putting on the record of this House that this was a burden the families of the deceased should never have had to bear."

He was speaking during a debate on the British-Irish Agreement (Amendment) Bill, which passed all stages. The Bill was a technical measure to ensure the change in the status of the follow-up programme to the current peace programme did not inhibit the special EU programmes body carrying out the functions envisaged for it in the original legislation.