Northern Ireland Budget Bill

Owen Paterson Excerpts

2nd reading: House of Commons & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Monday 13th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Nigel Dodds). I endorse his comments, as well as those of the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith), and the Secretary of State, about the shocking events that occurred at the weekend. There is absolutely no place in Northern Ireland for pipe bombs. Following all the work and all the struggles of all the political parties in recent years to establish these arrangements, there is every possible means to express political opinion and no place for such behaviour, and I am delighted to note that the House condemns it wholeheartedly.

I became Secretary of State after the long process that preceded the Belfast agreement. Policing and justice had just been devolved, and incredibly difficult decisions had been made by John Major, followed by those of Tony Blair. We really, really tried to make the system work. I saw a need to balance the political arrangements with help for the economy through the devolution of corporation tax. We had the complete support of all the political parties and the business community, but corporation tax has still not been devolved. We have done our bit in the House—we have given the Assembly and the Executive the power to do that—but, tragically for all those businesses in Northern Ireland and all the people working in them, it has not been delivered.

I am as disappointed as anyone in the Chamber that we are having to pass a Bill that will directly deliver money to keep things going in Northern Ireland. I entirely endorse what my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has done; I think that his patience in recent months has been extraordinary, and I fully understand why he intends to continue to do his best to persuade the local parties to agree. Sadly, however, we have reached this point. The Bill is technical and I hope that it will be passed shortly without amendment, although I know that other Members intend to speak.

My right hon. Friend made a key point in his speech. He said that his real concern was for good governance in Northern Ireland. What worries me is that it is simply not fair for the civil service in Northern Ireland to have to run the place without political decision-making. The hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley) mentioned that in an intervention. Who is responsible? To whom will the permanent secretary be accountable? Sadly, this arrangement can be only for the short term. We hope that the Secretary of State pulls it off and gets the institutions up and running. He has spoken of a “glide path”, and I think that he will have to deal with the problem of the declining public services in Northern Ireland.

Let me rattle off a few facts. This has nothing to do with money. Northern Ireland receives £14,018 per head, while England, where our constituents are, receives £11,579. That means that, in Northern Ireland, the state has £2,721 more to spend per head. Several Members have mentioned health and education; let me briefly deal with those.

Last month, the BBC conducted a major health study. When it comes to healthcare, Northern Ireland is the worst-performing region. In some specialisms such as orthopaedics, waiting lists for treatment now exceed three years. Patients suffering chronic pain can wait up to two years to be seen by a specialist, and cancer care targets have never been met. In 2015, the target for the health service was to complete 70% of routine procedures in three months; it did not meet that target. The response was to lower the target to 50%, and the health service failed to meet that as well.

In many critical areas, performance continues to get worse rather than better. In the Belfast Trust, which is not necessarily the worst-performing trust, 29,500 people are waiting more than 12 months for an out-patient appointment—the target is zero—and 25% of patients wait for a year to see a specialist, while in England and Wales the figure is 2%. Clinicians are voting with their feet. Doctors are refusing to work in some small A&E departments: they believe that they are unsafe to operate, because they do not have access to the full range of services and specialisms.

There is a way out. One thing that Northern Ireland is very good at is generating reports recommending reform. My hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) mentioned Professor Bengoa’s report, which recommended a complete restructuring of the health service. It was supported by clinicians and by the Sinn Féin Minister, but, of course, it has gone nowhere. Reform requires decisions. It needs leadership, and the political will to design and implement a healthcare system that can work and deliver for all the people. However, that inevitably means challenging local political interests, and the necessary political courage has simply not been there.

This partly comes down to the duplication of services. As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, I was a strong supporter of Shared Future, especially in the context of education. Education is critical to the future of the whole of Northern Ireland, but the sectarian division in education is a terrible waste—not just of human talent, but of money. There are two teacher training colleges. A proposal to rationalise them met with furious opposition, and was abandoned. The education boards were abolished and replaced by a new unitary education authority, but there is still waste. The authority now absorbs about 30% of the education budget. Some of that is spent on transport, but it shows that this terrible duplication is costly.

In 2015, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools proposed the closure of St Mary’s High School in Brollagh, County Fermanagh. It had just 121 pupils, which was far below the 500 that it needed to be viable. What happened? Against his own Department’s advice, the Sinn Féin Minister refused to close it. The roll has now fallen to below 90, and it will finally close in 2018. This fiasco has cost between £550,000 and £700,000 a year to keep it open. So if we are going to get a shared future, we should seriously consider the benefits of direct rule. Direct rule Ministers could take difficult decisions. We could end this ludicrous duplication, this ludicrous cost and this ludicrous waste in the delivery of public services.

I go to Northern Ireland quite regularly privately. Time and again in recent visits people have come up to me and said, “When are we going to get direct rule?” I know that no Front Bencher wants this, the devolved parties do not want it, and nobody in this House wants it, but we must now face up to the requirement to balance the problems of failing public services because of lack of political direction and the need to recognise the achievements of the process and to keep the political institutions going. That is a very difficult balance to judge at present, but when we hear the figures I have cited—I have plenty more, which I could have read out if I had the time—we recognise that we are letting down the hard-working people of Northern Ireland if we expect them to put up with failing public services, despite very high levels of public expenditure, because there is simply not the political decision-making process.

[Maria Caulfield]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Paterson]

No, as others want to speak.

It is simply not fair on the civil service to expect it to deliver this. So, without any great enthusiasm, I will be voting for the Bill tonight. I wish the budget had gone out to the local Members and there had been institutions spending this money months ago, but I wholeheartedly support what the Secretary of State has done, and I wholeheartedly sympathise with the difficult position he has been in. However, I ask him to think about the balance between what is happening on the ground, and what services the people of Northern Ireland are actually getting, and whether this stasis at the moment is really delivering for them.

Perhaps the Secretary of State should now begin to get his slow glide in order, to begin to think about direct rule Ministers. I agree with Opposition Front Benchers that once we get going on that it might be very difficult to get out, but I ask us all to think of that balance. We owe it to those hard-working people in Northern Ireland that they should get proper decisions made with public money.

Tonight, I will support the Bill, but I ask the Secretary of State to think about what happens over the next few weeks.

Northern Ireland: Political Situation

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

I came to apologise for missing the first two minutes, but you have called me, Mr Speaker, and I am grateful.

Can my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State confirm that unless we have a fully up-and-running Executive, we cannot implement the devolution of corporation tax, which will benefit every single citizen in Northern Ireland?

[Mr Speaker]

And there I was thinking that the right hon. Gentleman had come up to the Chair and just muttered some prosaic pleasantry, which I readily greeted. It is very honest of him to say that he was late, but I had not known that he was, and therefore as far as I am concerned he was not.

Oral Answers to Questions

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Wednesday 28th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Chloe Smith]

I will be happy to do so.

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

Under the terms of the Azores agreement and legislation passed through this House, only a devolved Administration can use their powers to reduce corporation tax, which would have an overwhelming beneficial impact on every citizen in Northern Ireland. Can the Minister guarantee that that will be raised in the talks over the next two days?

[Chloe Smith]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will do everything he can to ensure that those talks come to a successful conclusion. The point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson) simply underlines the need to make the reaching of that agreement a priority.

Northern Ireland (Ministerial Appointments and Regional Rates) Bill

Owen Paterson Excerpts

2nd reading: House of Commons
Monday 24th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

I begin by echoing the previous comments, particularly those of the Secretary of State, on the vile and cowardly bomb left outside Holy Cross Boys Primary School in the Ardoyne. I commend all those in the security forces who handled the incident and who handle similar incidents 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every week of the year. We all owe them a great debt of thanks for the manner in which they continue to police Northern Ireland. I also pay tribute to their predecessors who created the conditions, in intensely difficult circumstances and under quite extraordinary provocation, that enabled the peace process to take place.

On that basis, I wholly commend the comments of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, who has shown remarkable forbearance and patience, who has been abused and criticised quite unfairly in recent weeks and who has let himself in for a further extension through to 29 June, which is a wholly sensible measure. As he rightly said, there is not a single Member of this House, at least not that I know of, who would like to see direct rule return. The shadow Secretary of State, sadly in his valedictory performance—we will miss him in the next Parliament—rightly concurred that no one here wants direct rule to come back. There is a slightly daft narrative that some crazy Brits really want to reimpose direct rule, but absolutely not.

The institutions were set up and the Belfast agreement was passed after the most extraordinary period of negotiation, man-years of effort and bipartisan agreement in this House when members of Conservative Administrations made intensely difficult decisions that were supported by the Labour Opposition. In turn, when Labour came to power and we were in opposition, we supported the Labour Government. I had the honour to be shadow Secretary of State when the last major element, the devolution of policing and justice, went through, and we backed Labour all the way. There was a similar process in Dublin, where both main parties consistently supported the process, and of course none of this could have happened without the extraordinary support of both parties in the United States of America.

There is exasperation that we have now come to this point. There has been such progress, and I would like to speak up for those hard-working people on the ground in Northern Ireland. I still go to Northern Ireland, and the right hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sir Jeffrey M. Donaldson) and I appeared on “Spotlight” about three weeks ago. A lady in the audience asked me a good question, “What is going to happen about our budget? Who is going to pay our bills?” That was exactly the right question because she, along with many others, probably voted on 2 March to elect local politicians to make these decisions. None of us wants to make these decisions for those local politicians. It is completely exasperating.

I go to see the most wonderful, world-class businesses, which are trying to attract investment to Northern Ireland. They are travelling on behalf of Northern Ireland, representing hard-working, brilliantly skilful Northern Ireland people, and what is the international message?

[Tom Elliott (Fermanagh and South Tyrone) (UUP)]

Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that maybe a longer-term strategy is now re-emerging from Sinn Féin to make Northern Ireland unstable so that the people of Northern Ireland start to question its ability to govern itself? Maybe it is a tactic of Sinn Féin’s .

[Mr Paterson]

I do not like to comment on the motives of any political party. I would just like to say that, as someone who has been involved in Northern Ireland—I had three years as shadow Secretary of State and two years as the real Secretary of State—there is such good will among the populace across all parts of the community. I do not like talking about communities; I like talking about the whole community. They long for this to work, and there is real good will, but now there is utter frustration.

I am particularly exasperated because my great project, with representatives of four local parties—the fifth local party was also supportive—was to give Northern Ireland politicians the ability to set corporation tax, because we know that the Republic of Ireland’s determination, in the face of intense criticism from other major member states of the EU, to hold on to its right to set corporation tax has been the key to its success. The then Finance Minister in Dublin described it as the cornerstone of that success. As part of what was called the Azores agreement, it was vital for there to be a democratically elected institution in a devolved area to make that decision.

The current situation is exasperating for me, having got this measure through—having got complete unity among Northern Ireland parties and the support of almost all Northern Ireland business—and knowing the tremendous good it has done. The hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) is sitting there and I have visited his constituency. Just over the border, in Letterkenny, an extraordinary amount of investment is being made because of the corporation tax rate there, yet so much of that could have gone to Londonderry if the rate had been set in Northern Ireland. This measure was one of the great achievements of the last coalition Government, and I pay full tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs Villiers), who took it through during her time as Secretary of State. The powers are there, if only local politicians would grab the opportunity and establish an Executive.

Sadly, I must support this Bill; I totally endorse the comments of the Secretary of State and shadow Secretary of State that we would like to see an Executive set up. We had a successful election—that passed off—there are newly elected Members of the Legislative Assembly and they should be working with the institutions to set up a new Executive. Sadly, it is necessary to set a regional rate, but I hope we have to do it only temporarily. It is sensible for the Secretary of State to set a lengthier target of 29 June, and I wish him well on that, but if the elected local politicians still do not come to their senses by then I ask him to consider introducing legislation here on the issue of the cost of Stormont. Crudely, it costs about £1 million a month in salaries and expenses for MLAs. I know full well that the Northern Ireland public—

[Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP)]

The right hon. Gentleman is about to move on to a subject he takes great interest in. When he was shadow Secretary of State, he promised to people—he went around Northern Ireland and he told this House—that when a Conservative Administration came into power he would deal with the cost of Sinn Féin MPs who are elected to this place, do not do any work and do what he is now going to go on to claim the MLAs are doing at Stormont. He did nothing about that. Will he now agree that if the Government are going to take steps at Stormont, they will need to take steps at Westminster as well to address the same problem that exists in relation to people who are elected to this House and who, voluntarily, do not do their job? For us on the Democratic Unionist party Benches, this will be a critical issue.

[Mr Paterson]

The right hon. Gentleman knows my position on this issue, but I was Secretary of State in a coalition Government and we now have a robust Conservative Government—

[Mr Dodds]

You did nothing.

[Mr Paterson]

I know Members do not like this, but I should say that there are very few tools left in the Secretary of State’s box and one is to put financial pressure on the political parties. [Interruption.] This may hurt the right hon. Gentleman’s party and it may hurt his competitors, but I have not heard anything from the other side as to why this should not be done. I have not heard a single member of the public in Northern Ireland criticise this. The Belfast Telegraph polled a significant number of people and a very large majority supported the idea. We still have time—even if this Bill goes through today, we will still have until 29 June; we will have had four months, or a third of a year. I do not think this approach is unfair, and I think it has huge support across Northern Ireland among the general public. I do not think it is unfair to say that if elected Members cannot get their act together after four months, they should cease to receive public money in salary and their staff should cease to receive public money in their salaries and costs.

[Mr Dodds]

So I take it the right hon. Gentleman will repeat the same call in relation to Members and their staff here who are in receipt of public money but do not do their jobs. Will he say that clearly to the Government Front-Bench team today?

[Mr Paterson]

I am a simple Back Bencher, but the right hon. Gentleman knows very well that I believe strongly that, in the words of Lady Boothroyd, as she now is, there is no such thing as “associate membership” of this House. She was exactly right on that. Those elected to this House should take their seats if they are to receive public money, but that does not get away from the point I am making, which is germane to this point about 29 June. I repeat it again: should elected Members not get their act together and form an Executive, the Government should consider taking powers to stop them getting salaries and expenses from the public purse, because that will put pressure on them and that is what the people of Northern Ireland will be looking for. In the light of that, I will support the Bill tonight. I regret very much, as does the Secretary of State and the shadow Secretary of State, that we have come to this point, but it is a sensible measure to buy us more time.

Northern Ireland: Political Developments

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Tuesday 28th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

I welcome the statement the right hon. Gentleman has just made of his party’s commitment to continue to engage and work to see devolved government get back on its feet, and that is an important point to underline as we look to the days ahead. Yes, there is a real challenge with the budget, and that is why I made the comments that I did in my statement. We need to continue the dialogue to give effect to what the right hon. Gentleman has said, and I would certainly encourage him to maintain that focus and that progress. A positive outcome is absolutely attainable, and we all feel a duty to ensure that we reach that positive outcome and create an Executive that deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his measured and balanced statement and for the manner in which he has conducted the negotiations so far—we all know this is not easy. He is absolutely right to say that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland, and the vast majority of Members of this House, want to see these institutions up and running and the Executive formed from the elected Members. Does he agree that one measure that could put pressure on the parties to come back to the talks and that might crystallise minds would be to make it clear that, should the elected Members not form the Executive after a lengthy period of negotiation, their salaries and expenses will not be paid from the public purse?

[James Brokenshire]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s contribution and his work. We will be keeping all options under consideration, but the focus has to be on looking to the positive—looking to the outcome that sees parties coming together and getting devolved government back on its feet at the earliest opportunity, because that is what people voted for.

Oral Answers to Questions

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Wednesday 15th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

The UK Government take their responsibilities seriously in providing political stability, but the focus—the real intent—is on securing an outcome and an agreement in that three-week period. I believe that that is doable and achievable, and it is with that approach, and with good will, that I hope the parties will engage to achieve that outcome. Speculating on alternative approaches is not helpful.

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

I echo the comments of the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Mr Dodds) on those who recently lost their lives.

Hard-working people in Northern Ireland will be staunchly behind the Secretary of State in his efforts to re-establish a new Administration following the elections. However, in order to concentrate minds, if local politicians are unwise enough not to form an Administration, will he consider taking measures to cease paying salaries and expenses to those who have been elected?

[James Brokenshire]

My right hon. Friend highlights a report that was published on that issue over the past week or so. My focus is on getting the parties together to reach an agreement within the three weeks. As I said, I think that that is doable with urgency and a sense of good will. That is what we need to focus on.

Northern Ireland: Political Developments

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Tuesday 10th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

I welcome any indication of the parties working together, and we need to take this opportunity to establish what arrangements can be put in place. I will therefore continue my discussions with all the political parties in the days ahead. The right hon. Gentleman highlights the issues that are at stake, including the need for continued strong government within Northern Ireland so that those issues can be taken forward. That is certainly what I want to see, and I think it is what the whole House would like to see. We must establish whether there is a way forward to be able to achieve that end.

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

Many hard-working people across Northern Ireland who just want to get on with their lives will be exasperated by recent events and will welcome the Secretary of State’s measured tone, and indeed the comments of the shadow Secretary of State. In his discussions, will the Secretary of State remind all parties of the huge effort and immensely difficult compromises that brought about the current settlement? Will he stress that the enormously valued long-term benefits must not be jeopardised for short-term political motives?

[James Brokenshire]

Again, I thank my right hon. Friend and my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs Villiers) for all their work over many years to provide stability and security. Hard effort has gone into achieving the gains that we see today, and we need to approach the days ahead with that focus to see what resolution can be found.

Oral Answers to Questions

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Kris Hopkins]

May I offer my condolences to Danny Murphy’s family as well?

I recognise the impact that tourism has on the hon. Lady’s constituency. The Mourne mountains are a great attraction, and the Newcastle air show in the first week of August is really important for the local economy. I hope that I can also make a contribution to that in the near future.

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

The campaign to give powers to the Assembly to reduce corporation tax united all political parties in Northern Ireland and pretty well the whole of business in Northern Ireland. A business in Craigavon told me that it would double its turnover and its workforce if the rates were down to those of the Republic. Will the Minister guarantee that he and the Secretary of State will use every opportunity to push the Assembly and the Executive to get this through?

[Kris Hopkins]

I recognise the contribution that my right hon. Friend has made in trying to achieve this. It is right that we challenge the Executive, and fiscal responsibility is an important part of that process. There is an important budget coming up at the moment, and there is ongoing dialogue between the NIO and the Executive.

Parachute Regiment: Arrest

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Wednesday 18th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Wallace]

The right hon. Gentleman is right to express concern at the manner in which anyone is arrested, but, as I have said, I cannot comment on this individual case. If he has issues with how and in what manner that person was arrested, may I suggest that he takes it up with the Chief Constable?

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

I entirely endorse the comments of the Minister and the shadow Secretary of State about how the current circumstances in Northern Ireland could never have come about without the extraordinary bravery and discipline of all those in our security forces who allowed the peace process to take root. To pick up the shadow Secretary of State’s question, the Saville report is the most extraordinary compilation of detail. Will the Minister confirm that all the evidence given by soldiers who were questioned is absolutely untouchable and cannot be used on legal grounds to incriminate them, and that their anonymity is also legally protected?

[Mr Wallace]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. It is absolutely the case that the testimony given by a former soldier cannot be used against that former soldier in any future case. He or she is protected from incriminating him or herself, whoever gave that evidence. As for my right hon. Friend’s other point, I think the best thing is for me to get a proper, clear answer and to write to him on that matter.

Paramilitary Groups (Northern Ireland)

Owen Paterson Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Villiers]

I, too, welcome the assessment’s confirmation that the intelligence services do not believe that any of these paramilitary organisations are preparing for a return to terrorism. The hon. Lady is also right to highlight the fact that the problem of criminality is common across the different organisations. She asked whether I am confident that the talks will succeed. It is difficult to say, because there are still some significant gaps between the parties, and the debate over the financial sustainability measures, which are crucial if we are to return to successful devolved government, continues to be difficult to resolve. However, I believe that all five parties participating in the talks want to find a way through and to make devolution work, so I have some hope that we might have a successful outcome, although it is not guaranteed.

[Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her statement, particularly her tribute to our military and security forces, who defended the rule of law through some very difficult decades and created the conditions in which the talks could take place. Does she agree that we cannot have a normal political process in Northern Ireland while those engaged in political activity have links to shadowy organisations that might either go to the grotesque end of murdering Kevin McGuigan, or indulge in money-raising activity that is wholly illegal, such as racketeering, money laundering and fuel smuggling? The answer is absolutely to bear down on every one of those criminal activities, regardless of where that might lead and any potential political embarrassment.

[Mrs Villiers]

I agree that it is vital that Northern Ireland moves to a situation in which paramilitary groups are part of its past, not its present or its future. It is entirely unacceptable for those organisations still to exist, and the involvement of their members in such serious criminal acts must be a matter of grave concern. It is vital that the police follow the evidence wherever it leads them. Bearing down on the criminal activities of those individuals is how we will help Northern Ireland to move forward.