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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

My Lords, I accept the narrowing. However, I do not have a note on this, because specified classification of Commonwealth citizens did not come up in Grand Committee. I cannot answer the point today, but there will be another opportunity at Third Reading, so we can have a look at this next week. I do not know about the Commonwealth situation, which I regret, but there is that narrowing. At present, anything goes, which must be wrong—and not only that, anything goes and it is kept secret. That must be completely wrong, too. I realise that this is like a red rag to a bull, but there are restrictions in the Republic, which is why we in the UK must discuss this with the Government of the Republic to ensure that we get the rules right and that they are fair, transparent and enforceable. We must ensure that brass-plate companies cannot be used as a means of feeding money into Northern Ireland political parties of whatever ilk, because there would be ways round it. That is why we must have discussions. I suspect that the Irish Republic Government would probably take the same view, and that they would rather brass-plate companies could not be used to get money to political parties. The point is that the conditions will be in separate legislation. As I was about to say before I had to dig myself out of a hole, the legislation will come to this House not out of the blue but after consultation with the Electoral Commission and all the political parties—it is not as though this is done simply with the technocrats in the Electoral Commission. All the political parties in Northern Ireland, of which there are quite a few, will have the opportunity for consultation on this issue before the order gets near the House. It is not as though this is the end of the matter. It is a significant step forward under the current arrangements. As I said, it takes account of the special historical—but what the noble Lord would consider unacceptable—relations between the parties in Northern Ireland. That is the state of play. It is the Government’s policy following the arrangements that we have made and the discussions that we have had. If I can keep going for about another 30 seconds I shall be given an important note, which I hope will set the context even further. This Bill is not the end of the matter; it is enabling. The Electoral Commission is the guardian of the rules on funding. We must make sure that back-door routes are not made available. The political parties in Northern Ireland have to run candidates to be funded. They cannot be brass-plate political parties as well as brass-plate companies. Locks must be built in to ensure that that money cannot filter across the Irish Sea to political parties in Great Britain.