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Northern Ireland Bill

I wish to speak to Amendments Nos. 3 and 4. As I understand it, and following what the noble Lord, Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, has just said, the d’Hondt mechanism for choosing Ministers depends on a party’s numbers. Numbers have never been my great forte so I find that system difficult to understand. But as I understand it, if d’Hondt was run using the strength of the parties as they were in 2003, as the noble Lord, Lord Maginnis, said, the Executive would comprise three DUP members, three UUP, two Sinn Fein and two SDLP. However, if it was run using the strength of the parties as they are now, the Executive would comprise four DUP members, two Sinn Fein, two UUP and two SDLP. So as well as losing a seat on the Executive to the DUP, the UUP would be further disadvantaged as it would be further down the pecking order for choosing ministries. Although the UUP now has the same number of seats as Sinn Fein, Sinn Fein gained more first preferences during the election in 2003. When parties are tied under d’Hondt, the party with the biggest number of first preferences is deemed to be the larger. I see that the noble Lord, Lord Maginnis, agrees with my interpretation of that. So instead of choosing the second ministerial position, the UUP would pick up the third, after the DUP and Sinn Fein. No wonder this needs to be clarified. I am sure that the Minister will look closely at what I have said and perhaps write before we reach the next stage of the Bill to confirm whether my interpretation is right. It could be argued that a precedent was set during the course of the 1998 Assembly because, initially, Robert McCartney’s part of the UKUP was elected with five members of the Assembly. However, during the course of the lifetime of that Assembly, the four other members split away from McCartney and formed the NIUP. But that did not affect how the Executive or committees were constituted as it was decided that for the purposes of d’Hondt you were a member of whichever party you were in when you signed the roll on the first day. If that logic was applied to this situation, as the Assembly has not sat since it was elected in 2003, parties would be signing the roll in May and, therefore, would sign in as a member of whichever party they belong to now. I hope that the Minister has followed what I have said. This situation demonstrates that the d’Hondt mechanism is not a particularly good way in which to allocate seats in an executive. D’Hondt also throws together parties that may not want to work together. As the 1998 Assembly demonstrated, there was absolutely no sense of collective responsibility in the Executive; Ministers simply did their own thing. It would be much simpler all round if there was a voluntary coalition. Under those circumstances, parties would at least have come together by choice, they could negotiate a programme for government together, and we could achieve some kind of cohesion in the governance of Northern Ireland.