---

Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

My Lords, the Minister is quite right. This is a vast improvement compared with what applies in England, Scotland and Wales. People throughout the world can send donations to political parties in Northern Ireland, but the very bad news for Northern Ireland is that Her Majesty's Government in restricting this facility are now limiting it to Irish citizens and companies and so on to send funds to political parties in Northern Ireland. I am saying, bluntly, that that is totally discriminatory. You are helping to finance Irish nationalist movements within Northern Ireland at the expense of the majority British unionist community. They should havethe same facility to get funding from British Commonwealth citizens, and you are denying them that right. It is total discrimination.