Northern Ireland Protocol

Lord Adonis Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord True]

My Lords, I am afraid that I do not have that information for my noble friend. I did note that the Northern Ireland Executive’s collective response was not unfavourable, to put it gently. As for paramilitary activities and paramilitary smuggling, no doubt that remains a problem, but the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are united in wishing to stamp out such activities. The best way to do that is to continue to support the Good Friday agreement, and that is the fundamental objective of this Command Paper and the way forward that we have proposed.

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

The Minister, speaking on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, obviously chooses his words very carefully, and I took him earlier not to be ruling out there being an EU office in Belfast. Is that correct?

[Lord True]

I will have to read my words to understand how the noble Lord interpreted them in that way. Our position is that such an office is not necessary for the implementation of this agreement, and that remains our position.