---

Northern Ireland Bill

I welcome the introduction of the Bill and the fact that we are completing its Third Reading. I hope that the tenor of the Bill and of the debate in the Chamber today and yesterday, which showed what happens when there is a willingness to work forward together, sometimes with a sense of humour—perhaps that was absent in the past—will continue. If we bring that to the round-table conferences that we will be having over the next few months, I sincerely hope, on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, that we can have a new future and a new beginning based on that total trust that we can have in one another. If we fail, it will be because some parties have put party interests before people. I hope that, in this case, the people win and that we carve out the new beginning in Northern Ireland for which we have striven for nearly 40 years. It would be a wonderful achievement if we could do that, not by 24 November, but before the summer recess, because I think that that is possible.