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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I do not accept that the commission should have lesser powers than those outlined in the Paris principles when it comes to carrying out its remit in respect of human rights in Northern Ireland. That remit should be significant and many people believed and assumed that it was as significant as what is covered in the Paris principles. That is what has to be rectified and remedied. We should remember that we are talking about a product of the Good Friday agreement. The human rights commission in the Republic is also a product of the Good Friday agreement. It is odd that one commission has those powers and the other does not, if we are talking about things being like for like and parity of approach. In response to an intervention from the hon. Member for Belfast, East (Mr. Robinson), the Secretary of State entertained the possibility of a number of amendments being introduced to deal with what might be termed constitutional or institutional matters. I warn the Government that it would be a political misadventure to try to use the Bill as a vehicle for translating into legislation chunks of the so-called comprehensive agreement of December 2004, which was not an agreement and was not comprehensive. It emerged as a result of negotiations between the two Governments, the Democratic Unionist party and Sinn Fein. It came on the back of the two Governments aborting the review of the workings of the Good Friday agreement that was under way in 2004 and it contains a number of provisions that violate key principles of the Good Friday agreement. I warn the Government against using the Bill to legislate for the comprehensive agreement. I know that they will be tempted to do so, because Sinn Fein very foolishly agreed all sorts of things that it apparently now disagrees with. In the comprehensive agreement, it agreed that legislation would be introduced in the House to create a shadow Assembly. Now Sinn Fein says that it is totally against a shadow Assembly. It also agreed that coming out of the shadow Assembly would depend on the reports of the Independent Monitoring Commission. It now says that it would not have the Independent Monitoring Commission about the place and that the commission should have no part in determining our political future. However, I hope that, although the temptation might be there in relation to Sinn Fein’s mistakes in the comprehensive agreement, the Government will not try to lift chunks of the comprehensive agreement and legislate for that in the Bill.