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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

My Lords, it is a great privilege for me to follow the outstanding maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Trimble, who was for many years my political leader. He led the Ulster Unionist Party and Ulster through important and eventful times. I am strongly of the view that the noble Lord played a vital role in the peace process but was let down by others in the operation of the agreement. The noble Lord, Lord Trimble, is well known throughout the world. He was a Member of the other place for 15 years. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel peace prize, along with John Hume. In 1999 he became Northern Ireland’s First Minister, a position he held off and on for three years. To date, he has been the only First Minister. I am confident that the noble Lord will be a major asset to your Lordships’ House and I look forward with other noble Lords to his many contributions. I thank the Minister for his explanation of the Bill, which is clearly important if there is to be any serious attempt to bring devolved government to Northern Ireland. I acknowledge the work of the Government in attempting to start the Assembly. The task is most definitely uphill. This is not 1999—things have moved on—and the Belfast agreement is no longer a fresh document. We have witnessed the failure to implement the agreement by both Sinn Fein and by the Irish Government. There is a resultant lack of sympathy for the agreement within the unionist community. Trust has all but gone—and without it there is no hope of devolution as per the agreement. Perhaps we unionists are wiser and more careful people now. Certainly, those of us who tried to make the agreement work and to build trust were let down time and time again by the Northern Ireland Office and its supporters in local departments. The whole machinery of cross-border bodies, in which I have a close interest, has not produced anything to the betterment of the unionist population—quite the opposite. Let us take as an example Intertrade Ireland, a body of which few have heard and which consumes public funds without result. In the top four grades of management of the body, Protestant employees hold only 15 per cent of the posts. In the top two grades, no posts at all are held by Protestants. This is bad enough, but the remaining few Protestants have now complained to the Secretary of State that they are under pressure to leave. Much of this Bill is about the transfer of policing and justice to a devolved Assembly. The House will not be surprised to learn that considerable concern is felt about the idea of having a Sinn Fein MLA in charge of anything in the area of policing and justice. The republican campaign to blacken the name of the loyal order stands as a monument to its sectarian, mono-cultural approach. Before the 1990s, loyal order parades, which are part of the unionist tradition, were not the focus of violent campaigns on the street or elsewhere. It is interesting to note that only four Orange halls were attacked and destroyed from 1969 to 1989. From 1990 to date, despite the ceasefire and the peace process, 240 halls have been destroyed. The leaders of all the loyal orders deserve much credit for their leadership in difficult times and for keeping their institutions together in a positive way. I praise in particular the historic meeting this week between the leadership of the Orange Order, the Independent Orange Order and the Royal Black Institution and the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. I understand that to have been a most successful meeting, and it should be supported by all right-thinking people. I support the section in the Bill which deals with sustainable development, but I would urge further action. I would ask the Government to include in the provisions a requirement for public authorities to adopt the concept of fair trade. Fair trade guarantees a better deal for workers and farmers in poor countries around the world. By becoming the world’s first fair trade country, Northern Ireland would show that it is supporting a progressive alternative and promoting the interest of workers and farmers across the world—a first for Northern Ireland. Fair trade ensures a better deal for workers and small-scale farmers in poor countries. Farmers are paid a just and stable price for their crops, and workers are guaranteed decent and safe working conditions and fair wages. Fair trade producers also receive an additional premium that can be invested in social projects or business development. Across the Province, thousands of individuals, organisations and business are already choosing to use or sell fair trade. In July 2005, Belfast became the first fair trade city. Queen’s University became the country’s first fair trade university in February 2006. Ballymoney Borough Council is working towards fair trade status. The Assembly Commission at Stormont has adopted a fair trade policy and churches across the country have become fair trade churches. In the Government’s attempts to restart the Executive, Ministers should remember that trying to force anyone to do anything against their will in Ulster is totally counter-productive. Adding to the resolve of the majority is any suggestion of a secret deal done with Sinn Fein. Such a cloud hangs over the Government’s proposal for a national stadium at the Maze. This project, with which HMG seem determined to continue, has no support outside the Maze area, and that includes the three major sporting organisations. Belfast City Council is proposing a stadium in the city and Linfield Football Club has been promised more funding to upgrade Windsor Park, yet the Government seem determined to press ahead with the ill-thought-out and unpopular proposal to build a massive stadium, including a celebration of terrorism in the form of a preserved part of the Maze prison, at public expense. This white elephant will soak up money and be a blister on the face of the Province. The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Belfast has been spinning against me in relation to the Maze project, even about the contents of my remarks tonight. DCAL, which is not noted for activity which would be fair to the non-Irish community, has a record of spinning against me. Its problem is that I know the names of those involved and how they operate. If they do not stop and return to being fair, even-handed civil servants, I will name them in your Lordships’ House. The Bill includes much about policing. We are told about the need for a new start for our police service. In the changed circumstances, there is something in that argument. A new start means a new state-of-the-art policing college, or so we were told. The present accommodation is totally inadequate. Now we have been informed by HMG that the proposal for a new college in Cookstown is too expensive and that the state-of-the-art college may not be built. In the Northern Ireland Grand Committee of 6 February 2003, the then Minister in charge of policing said:"““I hope that the hon. Gentleman will accept my reassurance that on Patten’s recommendations regarding the policing college, resources are not the issue””.—[Official Report, Commons, 6/2/03; col. GC005.]" The Government have tried to suggest that the cost of the new college has become too much without their knowledge and so can no longer be supported. Yet at page 89 of the annual report of the Office of the Oversight Commissioner, which I received only yesterday, reference is made to a tripartite project board, which includes the police service, the Policing Board and the Government—so HMG did know. How is it that the Government have plenty of funding to supply to the Maze project but only a limited amount when it comes to a new police college for a new beginning? What is the average citizen of Northern Ireland to make of that? What Sinn Fein/IRA wants, it gets, and the facts are distorted to suit the case, but what the police require is a problem, and again the facts are distorted—Alice in Wonderland, indeed. I shall return to a number of these issues with appropriate amendments in Committee.