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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

The hon. Gentleman has repeated that line so often that he is beginning to believe it. If he reads the comprehensive agreement, he will find that we made sure, through the provisions that we enunciated and the safeguards that we introduced, that the criminality and paramilitarism had to be over for good. However, his party was prepared to vote terrorists into government at a time when no decommissioning was taking place and criminality was ongoing. That was not even mentioned by his party. He voted for that, so it does not behove him to lecture the DUP on such matters. We have concerns about political donations that are permissible under Irish law. That opens up the possibility that what is permissible and legal is defined not by debate, discussion and vote in this House and in the other place but by what is decided in Dail Eireann. Laws could be made that apply to parties in Northern Ireland over which we would have no control. The clause that allows that needs careful consideration in Committee. It is far too wide ranging; it opens up possibilities whereby we are handing over power in this matter to another jurisdiction without any real safeguards at all and without any opportunity to curtail it or to revisit the issue, even within the Bill. That needs to be looked at. Finally, I allude to the point I raised when the Secretary of State opened this debate: the exemption for foreign donors when they are Irish or Irish corporations. The Secretary of State indicated that it is not just Sinn Fein that will benefit and which had made representations. He said that there were others, but he did not elaborate on that. It would be useful to know who else he was referring to in that regard—