Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Lord Empey Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Empey]

1: After Clause 7, insert the following new Clause—
“Opposition status in the Assembly
(1) Schedule 6 to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (standing orders: further provision) is amended as follows.
(2) After paragraph 4(2) insert—
“(3) The standing orders shall include provision in relation to the allocation of the Chairmanship and Deputy Chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee.”
(3) After paragraph 5 insert—
“Opposition status6 (1) The standing orders shall provide for official opposition status to be allocated to any party with at least one seat in the Assembly which is not a part of the Executive.
(2) Official opposition status shall only be introduced under sub-paragraph (1) if approved by a cross community vote in the Assembly.
(3) For the avoidance of doubt, it shall not be possible for the Assembly to revoke the official opposition status accorded to members under the provisions of this paragraph without the consent of the Secretary of State.””

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, perhaps I will be permitted a brief pause while your Lordships’ huddled masses leave.

As we discussed this topic in Committee and also had a significant debate on it at Second Reading, there will be no need to repeat many of the concerns that were expressed at that stage. However, the amendment approaches the matter from a different point of view. It was made clear that there was an anxiety that changing the effect of the 1998 Act through the miscellaneous provisions Bill could be seen as imposition of the idea of official opposition status over the head of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Under the amendment, the trigger for any action would be a request from the Assembly itself.

The noble Baroness will be well aware of my anxiety and that of a number of others that although of course the Assembly has powers to change its Standing Orders which could give effect to opposition status, the weakness in that argument is that what is given by the Assembly can be taken away by the Assembly. The danger is that, if an Opposition are established, it is on a grace and favour basis and will only have sufficient independence as long as that is the will of the other parties in the Assembly.

My purpose in moving the amendment, and that of my noble friend Lord Lexden, is to ensure that we move one step closer to providing additional accountability, so that the Executive can be held to account. Parties would have the option of achieving a status that will give them some additional speaking rights and supply day debates and provide for the very significant issue of the future chairmanship and deputy chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee. In other jurisdictions within the United Kingdom, those offices are held by parties that are not in the Government, whereas under the current arrangements in Belfast, they are occupied by parties that are in the Government. So that issue is fairly self-explanatory.

One issue that has come to my attention is that some elements within Sinn Fein feel that if opposition status is granted to parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly, that might in some way encourage parties not to share power with them. Parties are not going to decide not to share power with Sinn Fein on the basis of whether or not they could have opposition status, they are going to make that decision on a bigger political picture, so that is an Aunt Sally of an argument. Nobody is going to refuse to share power with Sinn Fein simply on the basis that they could get opposition status, a couple of supply day debates and so on. That argument is not credible.

If your Lordships think that there is no need for looking at opposition status in the Bill, I draw your attention to the fact that last year, an attempt was made to take away powers of one of the Northern Ireland departments, the Department of the Environment. An eight-page amendment was introduced at the very last minute which had the effect of removing some powers from that department and moving it to another one. That was done without any consultation through the committee and at the very last minute, so therefore there was no opportunity to have proper scrutiny of that proposal.

In essence, that makes my case for me, because it is precisely to counteract that risk that I believe that we require to provide certainty and a guarantee that if the Assembly chooses to go down the route of providing for an Official Opposition, which I hope it does, that Opposition will be a proper, free-standing Opposition who will have certainty that they cannot find themselves hobbled later should they fall out of favour with the executive parties of the day. We must remember that we cannot look at this simply in the context of the current make-up of the Assembly. We are looking years ahead—that make-up may change over time. It is for those reasons that I believe we need to go a bit further than the Minister has indicated in the past. Will the Minister tell us if she agrees with the proposition? I believe, reading her response at the previous stage—in Committee—that she does, and that she believes that there is this issue, raised by some people, that, in the absence of a guarantee which is not confined to the Assembly, the opposition status would be left in a fairly weak position.

I have an open mind on the methods we might choose to deal with this. This is one proposal. If we look at the Northern Ireland Act, and Schedule 6 to that Act—which deals with the question of Standing Orders—there are indicative Standing Orders set out in relation to committees and other matters, so we are not proposing anything wildly different. I also re-emphasise that the trigger for this has to be the Assembly itself, so that we are not forcing something on the Assembly that it does not want. At the end of the day, we need to put in place a mechanism that ensures that, if an Opposition are formed, they are free, independent and not subject to pressure. I believe that that would be an extremely valuable element in improving accountability. I support the mandatory coalition arrangements—although one would like to see a day when that is not necessary, it is necessary and will be for the foreseeable future; I doubt very much that anyone in this House today will see the day when it is not necessary. We are not getting into the argument about whether we are trying to replicate the Westminster system—we are not. That argument should be set to one side. However, that does not mean that the system is not capable of being improved or evolving. I draw the attention of the House to some speakers at the previous stage who said, “Oh well, we cannot impose things and we cannot interfere”. Parliament has imposed and interfered, and in fact a later amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, is a classic example of both interference and imposition. This Parliament has already interfered and imposed and it has done so with its eyes wide open. Indeed, in a debate in this House in 2006, the implications of pursuing the imposition were made clear—and that has proved to be correct.

Let us not hide behind the argument that you cannot look at an issue simply because it is not necessarily provided for in the current arrangements. Political deals have been done, and political deals have been imposed, and that is how the system works. We are not proposing that sort of methodology. As can be seen from this amendment, the trigger is the Assembly itself. It has to make the move, it has to ask, and it has to decide that it wants to go down this road. This amendment seeks to ensure that there is a guarantee and certainty that that Opposition, once established, will be free and able to pursue their objectives without let or hindrance from whichever happen to be the governing parties of the day.

Will the Minister comment in her response on how we can achieve these objectives, if she is not content with this proposal? I hope the Government understand that we are not here to impose; we are here to improve and to see the institutions evolve. I know that we are aware of the sensitive situation with regard to devolution throughout the United Kingdom. We know that eyes will be looking from Scotland at what we do here on this issue, and I understand fully that most of your Lordships do not want to give any hostages to fortune or provide any ammunition so that people in Scotland could say, “There you go. They are trying to impose something and if they’ll do it on Northern Ireland, they’ll do it on Scotland or on Wales”. I fully understand that argument, and the anxieties which those who hold those views feel over Scottish independence.

I do not want to provide ammunition to anybody in Scotland who seeks to break the union, but I repeat: the trigger for this has to be the Assembly itself, which takes it out of the realms of imposition. Between now and the next stage of the Bill, it ought to be possible to find a means of achieving these objectives without doing damage to the principle of non-interference. In that spirit, I beg to move.

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[Lord Empey]

My Lords, I welcome the debate that we have had. As Members of this House will be well aware, when a miscellaneous provisions Bill passes your front door, a variety of things inevitably appear in it. Of course, at the end of the day the Government brought the Bill here, so it is their fault that all these issues are being raised.

Throughout this process we have been trying to raise the profile of this issue. Earlier, I made the point that changes have been made to the architecture of the Assembly without the consent of the Assembly, without the consent of all the parties and, indeed, without any consultation with all the parties. It is against that backdrop and in that context that these amendments are being brought forward.

I am sure that I speak for my noble friend Lord Lexden when I say that we have no particular allegiance to this amendment vis-à-vis another. We are trying to achieve an objective, which is to allow the Assembly to evolve. I take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, that there is a Catch-22 situation. If you want the Assembly to have the trigger mechanism to seek an opposition status, to some extent you are giving it a veto. Equally, the only alternative to a veto is an imposition, but it has already been said around the House that that is not where we would seek to go.

I thank the noble Baroness for saying that she wishes to reflect further on the issue without commitment. We are open to finding a way to evolve the situation, whether that is through consultation with the parties, led by the Secretary of State, or by another mechanism or other means. All we want is to see progress.

The noble Lord, Lord Kilclooney, raises a very important point. I have been a lifelong supporter of devolution, as have many noble Lords here, but credibility is being lost. Sometimes things need to be refreshed and people need to see change and delivery. It is important that we do not confuse the facts. For instance, my noble friend Lord Lexden and I have brought forward this proposal but that does not mean that the party that I represent necessarily wishes to seek a status for itself now. It may very well be that other considerations, such as the stability of the institution, have to be taken into account. However, we have to look to the future and, as the noble Baroness said, the future generations of politicians need the best structure that we can give them.

With regard to the Minister’s point about the size of the Assembly and her intention to bring forward an amendment on that, I would just suggest that in the mean time she does an exercise on the impact that it would have had on the Assemblies that have been elected so far to see what it would have produced. The noble Baroness is a great advocate of proportional representation; her party sought to introduce it for this House and the other place. However, whenever people talk about it, I get the impression that they do not fully understand its implications. I suggest that people have a look at the figures to see what PR would have produced in the context of the Assembly elections in 1998, 2003, 2007 and 2011—what those elections would have looked like and what impact it might have had.

We had a proposal to reduce the number of constituencies in the United Kingdom Parliament. That would have been a perfect solution to the situation in Belfast because a reduction in the size of the Assembly would have been taken care of without the Assembly having to get involved; 12 seats would have disappeared and the Assembly would have gone down to a more reasonable size.

However, we are where we are and, on the basis of the noble Baroness’s assurances that she wishes to reflect without commitment, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 1 withdrawn.

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Moved by

[Lord Empey]

2: Clause 10, page 9, line 7, at end insert—
“(3) Subsections (1) and (2) shall only enter into force after the remaining provisions of this section have been complied with.
(4) The Secretary of State shall establish a body corporate called the Northern Ireland Civil Service Commission (“the Commission”).
(5) The Commission must publish a set of principles to be applied for the purposes of recruiting persons on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.
(6) Before publishing the set of principles (or any revision of it), the Commission must consult the Secretary of State.
(7) Northern Ireland Civil Service management authorities must comply with the recruitment principles.”

[Lord Empey]

My Lords, this is a very simple amendment. In Committee we discussed at considerable length the fact that we were seeking to ensure that the principles of merit and of equality of opportunity were always at the forefront of Civil Service recruitment. I take the point that in this case we have the anomaly that civil servants effectively are answerable to the devolved Parliament, whereas the Civil Service Commission is not. I believe, too, that if we cannot agree on the principles of merit and equality in terms of the Civil Service Commission, we are in severe difficulties.

I refer to the letter that the noble Baroness sent to us and to the fact that in Committee many people praised the Civil Service for its work in very difficult times over a prolonged period. Many civil servants conducted almost political negotiations on behalf of Ministers, in some cases at great risk to their personal safety. We owe them a debt of gratitude in that regard. The point was made that the situation in the 2010 Act gave the Whitehall Civil Service Commission one status, whereas the Civil Service Commission in Northern Ireland has a different one. The amendment was drafted to deal with that anomaly. I am interested to know how the Minister has reflected on these matters since Committee and whether she feels able either to support the amendment or to bring forward her own. I beg to move.

[Lord Bew (CB)]

My Lords, I support the amendment. The shadow of history lies over it. When the Northern Ireland Civil Service was established in 1921-22, something like 60 appointments were made without any normal procedures of recruitment being applied. Over a period of time a struggle to achieve a professional Civil Service began. The time between 1925 and 1944 when Sir Wilfrid Spender was head of the Civil Service was key. In the memoirs of a Catholic civil servant, Patrick Shea, who reached the top of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, one can see the degree to which great efforts were made to institutionalise procedures that reflected what Sir Wilfrid thought were the best procedures in Whitehall.

That backdrop explains why, when direct rule came, Ministers of all parties—I do not just mean Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat Ministers who had dealings with the Northern Ireland Civil Service, but Ministers who leant to one particular side or the other in Northern Ireland—always found that the Northern Ireland Civil Service delivered excellent and objective advice. If one looks at the non-controversial nature of north-south relations, which is of particular importance at the moment, it is clear that the big political decisions in such a context were made by the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, who is in his place today.

It is also the case that the work done by the Northern Ireland Civil Service in looking at areas of viable co-operation between north and south is a very important reason why the settlement is so stable. As the noble Lord, Lord Empey, has said, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Northern Ireland Civil Service. As I have argued, that integrity and professionalism has been hard won. The pressures of localism do not go away: it is not 1921 anymore. At this symbolic moment, it seems to me that noble Lords who supported this amendment want to say that a stronger message is desirable in terms of defining the principle of merit and of fair and open competition. That essentially is the idea behind this amendment: that that signal should be sent in a firm way.

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[Lord Empey]

My Lords, when this amendment was tabled, I thought it was going to be a fairly simple, straightforward matter—but as very often happens, that has not proved to be the case at all.

The Northern Ireland Assembly has not asked for any powers to be devolved with regard to the Civil Service Commissioners. Indeed, as we look at the next amendment, it has not asked for any of those powers to be devolved either. Contrary to the rumours, the people on the Newtownards Road do not speak of little else. My point is that this proposal has come from the Government of their own volition. It has not been sought. I have never heard anybody raise the issue at all.

The noble Lord, Lord Brooke, referred to the letter that some of us received in January from the chief commissioner. If I may be permitted to quote a little from it, it says:

“We have a similar role to that of the UK Civil Service Commission chaired by Sir David Normington, which regulates appointments to the Home and Diplomatic Civil Service. However, unlike Sir David’s Commission, the Northern Ireland Commissioners do not have the benefit of formal legislative provisions”.

It goes on further:

“Rather, our role continues to be governed by a Prerogative Order in Council”.

The noble Baroness is suggesting new proposals. We know that there is a clash between what is devolved and what is not devolved, but what is not devolved is currently excepted. As the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, said, a number of issues were deliberately left as excepted issues because they were potentially so sensitive. They went to the core of areas where people felt that things had not been well handled in the past, and it would be better for the long term to leave them to the one side.

The other point to bear in mind about the Civil Service in Northern Ireland is that the statutory role, function and power lies with the department, not the Minister. There is a complete difference. If the Minister is not there for whatever reason, the department can continue to apply policy that has already been decided. The law states that the Minister directs and controls the department, but in the absence of the Minister, the department itself has the power to continue implementing policy. That is a very distinct difference.

[Lord Trimble]

I must apologise as my memory is not clear enough on whether the noble Lord was present at a discussion I am going to mention. However, he will recall the time when, for political reasons which are not relevant to this point, I had resigned and I was proposing that my other Ministers would also resign. There was a discussion of senior officials about what we do in this situation. I cherish the comment made by someone who I will not identify, who said, “We must be very careful because we don’t want people to find out that we can take decisions without Ministers”.

[Lord Empey]

The noble Lord is perfectly correct. I recall being at a number of meetings where that issue was discussed. The law states that the Minister directs and controls the department when the Minister is there, but the power is vested in the department. That is why this is such a sensitive issue. We are in the House of Lords but the department Permanent Secretaries were known as the six barons in the direct rule years, because it was to them that people turned for resources and other things. There is a very distinct difference, and that is why this is such a sensitive issue. As I have said, the Civil Service Commissioners themselves clearly have anxieties. The Assembly has not asked for this but the Government, for their own reasons, have decided to bring it forward. If they were prepared to drop it, I am quite sure that Members here would be more than content. However, in view of what the Minister has said and in view of her letter, and the fact that she intends to hold further consultations, I believe it appropriate that I now beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 2 withdrawn.

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[Lord Empey]

My Lords, I have great sympathy with the point that the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, has made. It is another of these proposals that have not been asked for but have been arbitrarily put forward. One could almost have the sense in the back of one’s mind that the department was pushing these things out just to get them off its desk and out of its file and pass them on, and that would be a mistake. As the noble Lord said at the outset of his remarks today, certain issues were deliberately not included, and this is one of them.

We know that the Executive and the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister have had difficulties with the appointment of other commissioners. It set out to appoint one victims’ commissioner, I think it was, but after a prolonged period of time we ended up with four. At this stage, there is not a good track record.

My own personal view is that matters should be left alone. I do not know where the demand is for this; it is not there. To pile more pressure on the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister over other sensitive issues at this time is not particularly helpful, to be honest. As it is, that office is struggling to get decisions out on a whole range of issues, and I cannot see any rational reason why we would deliberately add to that, particularly when no one has sought this power. It is almost the inverse of the argument that was being made in respect of opposition: we do not want to impose something, but here we are shovelling things out that have not even been asked for. The best solution to this would be to leave well alone.

I had the privilege of serving on SACHR for a couple of years. It was a wonderful forum at times when things were really difficult. Let’s face it, it is very difficult to separate the politics from the appointments, and especially to separate the two from the budget. These are all things that come together. You know what people say: you get someone in the long grass. It might not be straight through the front door but there are other ways of doing it. I support the amendment and my personal opinion is that the Government should leave this alone; it is not worth the risk.

[Lord McAvoy]

My Lords, I understand the concerns that have led the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, to table this amendment. The discussion of human rights has played an important part in the establishment of devolved structures within Northern Ireland. Today the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission continues to play a key role in maintaining these institutions. Throughout the Assembly’s legislative process, the Human Rights Commission can intervene at any point to prevent the governing parties from creating legislation that does not conform to proper international standards of human rights. Given the importance of the commission to the legislative process, there is an understandable need to preserve its independence and impartiality.

The noble Lord, Lord Kilclooney, echoed by the noble Lord, Lord Empey, mentioned that there seems to be an air of lack of faith in the Assembly in Northern Ireland. There is certainly anecdotal evidence in conversations to justify that complaint, or at least to make a valid one. I urge all representatives from Northern Ireland and noble Lords and noble Baronesses here to use what influence they can to try to move things along. If the public start to lose faith in the Assembly, we are all in trouble, so we should all be trying to inspire faith in it. The noble Lord, Lord Kilclooney, was absolutely right to refer to that.

In Northern Ireland, the devolution of the relevant power to the Assembly would appear to offer a firm guarantee of the commission’s continued independence. While recognising the valid intent of the amendment, I think it would be a mistake to accept it at this time. As acknowledged by the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, a very valuable service is being performed by having this discussion.

The actual powers concerning the Human Rights Commission have not yet been devolved. Prior to the actual devolution, the Government have committed to carrying out extensive consultation and encouraging debate within Northern Ireland. It will not be until after this that the actual form that the devolution of these powers will take will be decided. Only then will it potentially be necessary to consider an amendment such as this.

Everyone agrees about the fundamental importance of human rights to the exercise of devolved government in Northern Ireland. It is also agreed that this is ensured through the independence of the Human Rights Commission and the impartial nature of its work. The preservation of this impartiality will be foremost in discussion when we come to actually devolve these powers. However, since the precise model for the devolution of these powers has not yet been agreed—and it will only be agreed after consultation within Northern Ireland, which will hopefully include a large say for the public—I feel that at this time the amendment has been quite rightly described as a probing amendment and the Official Opposition cannot support it.

The noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, made a strong case that the devolution of these responsibilities should be to the Assembly, as is the case in Scotland. The point was made in Committee that the impartiality and independence of the commission is crucial and must be both retained and maintained. Therefore, we welcome the Government’s commitment to ensure that proper consultation and debate on this takes place in Northern Ireland before a vote is taken to devolve these responsibilities. I conclude by thanking once again the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, for the service that he has provided the House.

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I notice particularly the provision that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, referred to under Section 26 whereby the Secretary of State can require things to be done in order to secure adherence to the conventions. I urge the Minister to take back to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland that there is quite strong feeling on this matter in this House and that she should seriously contemplate that power and how it might be used, even if only as leverage.

[Lord Empey]

My Lords, nobody could doubt that this debate has been very wide-ranging. The contributions from our noble and learned colleagues and others have made us realise that the matters we are discussing are of very great significance.

There are a number of easy solutions. Obviously, the Executive can act at a far greater pace than they are at the moment. However, there has been a change in the past few months with the change in Finance Ministers at Stormont. Mr Hamilton’s predecessor was very dismissive of any actions being taken in this matter; Mr Hamilton has asked the Law Commission to intervene. The Private Member’s Bill that Mr Nesbitt has before him has had his consultation and he has undertaken to share that consultation with the Law Commission. I believe he met it last week and reassured it that that would still be the case.

However, there has been a change in the pace at which this consultation is going. Originally we thought it would be brief and to the point because this issue has been consulted on time after time. However, I am now hearing stories that there is going to be a scoping study and then there will be a consultation by the Law Commission on top of the consultation that has already taken place in the Private Member’s Bill, on top of the consultation on the 2013 Bill. By my very rudimentary calculations, that would take the issue outside of the current Assembly’s mandate, which ends in 2016. What could be an easy solution could in fact simply kick the can down the road.

There is no question that those of us who have had the privilege of being in Stormont know that the issues raised by the noble and learned Lords, Lord Carswell and Lord Hope of Craighead, are important. By any stretch of the imagination, the easiest solution is for Stormont to deal with this itself. However, the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, and his colleagues point to the wider obligations of the United Kingdom Government and the issue of free speech and human rights. Of course, human rights have an international obligation, which is excluded from the devolution settlement and reserved to Westminster.

Pressure and sentiments have been expressed on all sides of this House. I hope that in their winding-up statements both the Government and the Opposition will encourage an early resolution to this, rather than simply going on and on with consultations for years. The truth is, and the noble Viscount, Lord Colville, made this point, that there are a few schoolyard bullies back in Belfast who regularly threaten people who speak their minds.

We have not mentioned today the other issue of academic publication, which is vital. Having had some responsibility for that, I know that there are many good researchers. We encourage research; indeed, we want to find even more money to put into research, only to find that the researchers could be prevented from actually publishing their findings. No one wants us to be in that place.

There is a simple solution to this, and I hope that the pressure from all sides in this House will direct us towards the solution, which is for the Northern Island Executive to encourage the Assembly to pass a legislative consent Motion. Alternatively, if that opportunity has now passed, the Assembly has the Private Member’s Bill in front of it; it could take over that Bill and introduce it very quickly. That is the course of action that I hope it will follow.

[Lord Alderdice]

My Lords, I had not intended to speak in this debate, but when I heard the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Browne, and the reservations of the noble and learned Lords, Lord Carswell and Lord Hope of Craighead, I felt that it was important to address the question of devolution and what the devolution doctrine means. It does not seem to be admissible of an entirely legal constitutional interpretation. It does not seem to be a matter of saying, “We’re devolved; we don’t have to give any kind of explanation to anyone for what we do. We can simply make arbitrary decisions”. It was not ever intended for that purpose. It was intended in general terms, and in particular in Northern Ireland, to ensure that decisions were made on a cross-community basis that ensured that the governance of Northern Ireland took into account the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland and its particular needs—domestically, within the United Kingdom, in relation to the Republic of Ireland and in relation to its relatively remote status. There are many areas where devolved government appropriately makes different decisions because, in terms of education, healthcare, transport or agriculture, the situation is different economically, practically, culturally, socially or whatever.

In certain circumstances, the notions adumbrated by the noble and learned Lords, Lord Carswell and Lord Hope, are completely correct, and their cautions in those circumstances would be well taken. The purpose of devolution is to enable that kind of differentiation. However, no reason has been given by the Northern Ireland Executive for this delay and for holding back. The noble Lord, Lord Browne, very appropriately supported his party in its decision on this matter, but even he did not give any good reasons why he should not fall in with the operation of the new Defamation Act in the rest of the United Kingdom. Nor, as far as I am aware, has there been any public debate at home in Northern Ireland, any indication that an agreement has been reached or any reasons adduced why we should not move forward—on the contrary, there has simply been an arbitrary decision that we are not going to go ahead on this. Then—and the noble Lord, Lord Browne, presented this in a very positive way—we will have this local consultation. That is fine if it is to ensure that there is real local difference, but it is not fine if the consultation kicks the issue into the long grass, and there is a suspicion that that is what it is all about.

On top of this, there are those circumstances where one can appropriately seal off Northern Ireland, as it were, to deal with particular issues. Animal health might be one. However, this issue cannot be dealt with in an isolated fashion. The whole point is that publication, whether digitally or in hard copy, cannot be isolated within Northern Ireland, and it puts everyone at risk if one tries to do that inappropriately.

I therefore want to emphasise that, although I appreciate the reasonable cautions, it does not seem to me that devolution is meant to enable the local devolved Executive to make arbitrary decisions without explanation or clarity, or decisions that are simply inappropriate to the circumstances. Then the question comes of how we deal with this. Do we deal with it by simply slamming something through this evening in your Lordships’ House and leaving somebody else to pick up the pieces—political or legal? I think not, but my noble friend Lord Trimble has pointed in the right direction. That is to say, whatever the limited remaining powers and opportunities of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, one of the opportunities she has is to take the messages from this Palace to the Stormont Administration and say to them, “Do you realise how strongly people in the rest of the United Kingdom feel about this? They are not terribly accepting of the notion that you are going to take a whole lot of time to deal with this. If you want to take a little time to tweak it or for your own particular reasons, that may well be acceptable”. However, I would be assured and reassured by the Minister, not if she were to say that she was going to accept this—because I am sure that she is not going to be in a position to do that—but if she were able to say to us that the Secretary of State, her right honourable friend, will take seriously what has been said in your Lordships’ House tonight, convey that to the Northern Ireland Executive at the most senior levels, and ensure that the matter is taken seriously and expeditiously.

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That is the sum of what I wanted to say this evening. I have said it as quickly as I can and I shall listen with interest to whatever the Minister might say.

[Lord Empey]

My Lords, I made the point in Committee that this was an imposed process, without consultation. It offended every point that has been made in this House this afternoon in respect of respecting the settlement and tore up a key part of the settlement that was voted on by a referendum. It was literally a backstairs deal, in the worst tradition of backstairs deals, so let us not give it any credibility that it is some kind of dramatic move forward. It has created a sectarian headcount format for elections even though there is no difference in the powers that can be exercised by the First and Deputy First Minister. They both have the same powers and there is no hierarchy in that regard.

I would say to the Minister that, when she stands up to defend the devolution settlement, she will understand that it rings a bit hollow to some of us when it was the Government who broke that settlement and did so without consulting those who made the settlement—and, it must be said, the noble Lords, Lord Trimble and Lord Alderdice, and others who were there at the time to make the deal. There is a Scottish saying—the noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, will know this—“Eaten bread is soon forgotten”. Had it not been for people like the noble Lords, Lord Trimble and Lord Alderdice, and others, there would be no Assembly for these people to sit in. A lot of people take it very badly that a deal that was done—a referendum that was passed—was swept aside in some kind of backstairs deal without even the courtesy of a phone call to say, “This is the line we are proposing to take”. Some of us learnt about it when we saw the draft of the 2006 St Andrews agreement Act. That is why, when I hear people defending the principle of devolution, it rings a bit hollow for some of us who have been around these things for some time.

I have, however, made my point. I support the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, in his amendment. It is that sort of thing that has been undermining. The potential for a six-week negotiation was the reason that Sinn Fein went to Tony Blair to get the thing changed; it was afraid that, if it put forward a particular candidate, that person would be negotiated out. It wanted certainty that whoever it was would go in. That coincided with the political changes that meant that, on the unionist side at that stage, it was much more convenient not to have to put your name on a ticket with a Member of Sinn Fein to get elected as First and Deputy First Minister respectively. It just happened to suit people at that time.

There is no noble principle involved in the 2006 amendment. It was, by any stretch of the imagination, a dirty deal.

[Lord Kilclooney]

My Lords, I do not want to be preaching more caution or to be more alarmist, but I find myself in total agreement with the analysis by the noble Lords, Lord Trimble and Lord Empey, of the situation within the Northern Ireland Assembly and the appointment of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, and the way in which this could be received by the community at large in Northern Ireland.

With the possible decline of unionist—I use the word with a small “u”—interest in the future of the Northern Ireland Assembly and with the possible lower turnout by unionist voters, under the new system that was introduced in St Andrews we could have a Sinn Fein First Minister in Northern Ireland for the first time. Can your Lordships imagine the reaction of what has been termed earlier in this debate the loyalist working class who had not bothered to vote and then find a former battalion commander of the IRA as their First Minister? I fear it would bring about the total collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly.