Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Section 75 —Designation of Public Authority) Order 2020

Lord Empey Excerpts

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP) [V]]

My Lords, in broad terms I support the introduction of this instrument; in his introduction, my noble and learned friend, set the scene. However, this originated in the authority in the EU withdrawal Bill, which incidentally, in its overview, said that it will

“take back control of our laws by reaffirming the sovereignty of Parliament; end vast annual payments to Brussels; protect the Union by ensuring we leave as one United Kingdom”.

My noble and learned friend will know that, as a result of the Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement, we will not be leaving as one United Kingdom, because Northern Ireland will remain very largely in the sphere of influence of the European Union—not the United Kingdom—from an economic point of view.

Section 75 has its genesis in the Good Friday agreement—I was one of the negotiators—so naturally it makes sense to introduce those provisions into this authority. However, I note that recruitment has begun, and some people have already been appointed. The question remains: were they appointed under the rules that would be appropriate to Section 75? I had the opportunity, as a Minister, to be responsible for these for many years—I believe that they are important and hope that they will apply retrospectively.

On the protection of rights, I must say to my noble and learned friend that, as the noble Lord, Lord Hain has said, this Government are failing dramatically in the question of payments to victims of the Troubles. The will of this Parliament is being openly defied by the Northern Ireland Executive in failing to do its duty. We have a parallel: the recent victims of historical institutional abuse had to wait for years and years until justice was done, and that was scraped through only at the last minute in the last Parliament.

The Secretary of State knows perfectly well that hundreds of people are sitting and waiting, having been misled. Nobody told them that this problem had arisen in February of this year, until it slipped out 10 days before the day on which they were to have been paid, when an official appearing before a committee was able to tell politicians that nothing had been done in preparation. That was only 10 days before people were expecting to be able to apply to be paid.

Whatever anybody says about rights—and in this House we are all, I believe, for that—the Government must show that they are upholding rights and that they have a duty to protect the people of this country. That is why Parliament decided to help people who were victims of the Troubles—people who were attacked and had their lives and ability to earn a living dramatically changed and ruined in many cases—with pensions.

I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Hain, on the work he has done on this over the last number of years. However, this cannot go on. It simply cannot, cannot, cannot be allowed to continue the way it is. The rights of those people, guaranteed under Section 75, are being trampled on, and it is our duty as a Parliament to uphold those rights. I hope and pray that my noble and learned friend will address this in his summing up.