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Northern Ireland Bill

On Amendment No. 1, it seems to me that Ministers, both in the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland, should be responsible for the supervision of the cross-border bodies. If that does not always take place, we have the Auditor-General, the National Audit Office, the Ombudsman and probably the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission on which to fall back to redress any matters that are thought to be going wrong. It also occurs to me that not all cross-border matters are, in fact, devolved. Therefore, they could not all be the responsibility of the Assembly. As to Clauses 3 and 4, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Clifton, that they are too widely drawn. I dare say that they could provide a bad precedent when we come to considering at some point in the future the deregulation and reform Bill. We should keep to the time-honoured principle that secondary legislation should not amend primary legislation. On Amendment No. 2, the paragraph that is being objected to seems to negate the right of the elected Assembly, and again seems too widely drawn. How the Assembly should conduct its proceedings should surely be a matter for negotiations between the Secretary of State and the Assembly.