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Northern Ireland Bill

: I am sure that all hon. Members echo the words of the right hon. Gentleman. We all hope that there will be a secure democratic foundation and that the proper Assembly can come into being again and exercise its proper functions. I welcome the fact that the Secretary of State is going to reply to this debate, because he must face up to a number of important facts. He knows that I would not question his good intentions or his personal integrity because I have considerable admiration for the Secretary of State and we have enjoyed a cordial relationship in various capacities in this House. However, he must recognise that he is taking to himself the most enormous powers in this Bill. Whether he aspires to the feathered hat of the pro-consul, or whether he aspires to the uniform of the commissar, he is taking powers that any pro-consul or commissar would be extremely pleased to have. For a start, the Secretary of State is appointing every member of the body. I support the suggestion from the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) that it would be clearer and therefore more honest to call the body something other than ““the Assembly””—““the forum”” would be fine. Although it will consist of the members who were elected to the Assembly, it is not the Assembly—it is the Secretary of State’s creature, and he is giving himself powers to direct how it shall perform, who shall preside over it and what it shall do. He is also reserving powers to say that if he does not like what happens, he can tell the Assembly to do other things. Three democratic parties from Northern Ireland are represented in this House and their credentials are beyond question. I accept that the DUP, the SDLP and the UUP genuinely want the Assembly to succeed, so it is important to take account of what they say. As the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) has said, the amendments contain a remarkable degree of agreement between the three parties. There is a perception that the Secretary of State and the Government as a whole pay more attention to the party that is not here than to the parties that are. I hope that the Secretary of State is listening because the point is very important—when the Whip has stopped talking to him, he can listen. There is a perception that the party that is not here is more highly regarded and taken greater account of than the parties that are. I am not saying that that is the case; I am saying that that is the perception. The Secretary of State must make it abundantly clear in what he says today and in the extremely sensitive talks that will take place in the coming weeks that those who play by the rules—the DUP, the SDLP and the UUP—have a special position which the others can have, if they want it. All the others have to do is what we said yesterday during what was, as the right hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) has said, an extremely constructive Second Reading debate. There was very little disagreement yesterday. There was a unity of desire to see a proper Assembly functioning properly with all its elected Members and a recognition that, in order for that to happen, Sinn Fein has to play by the rules and show that it is so doing. We all welcomed the report by the Independent Monitoring Commission. Everyone, including the right hon. Member for North Antrim and his deputy, the hon. Member for Belfast, East (Mr. Robinson), recognised that there has been real progress, but underlined the continuing, disturbing involvement in criminality among some of those in Sinn Fein that puts in question its aspirations towards democratic credentials. I hope that the Secretary of State will address those points full on when he deals with the substance of the amendments. As he does so, will he explain why he cannot heed the unity of view between the three Northern Ireland parties represented here on the subject of Orders in Council? The hon. Member for Montgomeryshire made that point effectively, persuasively and, if I may say so, persistently, and he was right to do so. The months between May and November will be vital if we are to reach agreement and move forward. I hope for a long period when there will be no disruption of the Assembly, Assembly will follow Assembly, and people in Northern Ireland with political aspirations, whether Unionist or nationalist, will stand for it, be elected to it and work within it. Having called this creature into being, I ask the Secretary of State to trust it and not to do things in this House that take away from it some of the difficult and crucial decisions with which it, and it alone, should grapple. The Assembly must have red meat—real issues to deal with—and be able to show the people of Northern Ireland that they can trust it. We are all disturbed about the percentage of people who vote in elections. If they are to vote for the Assembly in large numbers, it must have real power to deal with big issues such as the structure of local government in Northern Ireland. That was mentioned by many Members yesterday and again today by the hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan), who made some extremely good points. The current structure of local government in Northern Ireland is not welcomed by anybody. Twenty-six local authorities are far too many at a time when there is a proliferation of other bodies. However, in lighting upon the figure of seven, which is supported only by the party that is not represented here, the Government are creating unpopularity and difficulty for themselves. I beg the Secretary of State to go gently on this until November, so that the Assembly can determine whether the number should be seven, nine or whatever. We are fully agreed that it should be substantially fewer than 26, but let it be a figure that commands support across the board in Northern Ireland, so that the right hon. Member for North Antrim and the hon. Members for Foyle and for North Down and others can all say, ““Yes, we recognise this, we want to work with it, and we want it to be the framework for our local government for coming generations.””