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Traffic Management (Northern Ireland) Order 2005

I thank the Minister for his explanation. I also thank the officials for taking time to brief me this morning, as I thank others who have done the same this morning. I support the whole purpose of this order. I understand from my briefing this morning that it is hoped, in due course, that it will become self-funding, which is a good objective. I am a little concerned about having only one company for the whole of Northern Ireland being responsible to the department, but it is not a large geographical area for an operation of this nature; we are probably talking of a town or a city. One matter that is absolutely certain is that the parking discipline in Northern Ireland at the moment is non-existent and something needs to be done about it. One concern, which I always have on such matters, is that I see that regulations will be made following the passage of the order, which presumably will outline the authorities and how the whole business will work in practice. They will be made under negative instrument, so we shall not see them. I always feel uneasy about giving the Secretary of State any more power than he has already. However, perhaps on this occasion we can overlook that and if it all starts to go wrong we can return to it one day. I support the order.