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Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Bill

Anyone from Parliament, Northern Ireland or the rest of the UK watching our debate will be filled with bubbling enthusiasm for the prospect that the St. Andrews agreement will be implemented. The right hon. Member for North Antrim (Rev. Ian Paisley) asked where the date of 24 November for nominations had come from. As the hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) said, it appears in paragraph 10 of the St. Andrews agreement, to which all the parties signed up and which is the reason for proceeding with the legislation. I was asked where the date of 26 March came from. It, too, appeared in paragraph 10 and elsewhere in the St. Andrews agreement. This has been a sobering debate for the whole process. The Government and I introduced the legislation in good faith, after all the parties, including the DUP and Sinn Fein, signed up to the St. Andrews agreement. I am not suggesting that they signed up to every comma and full stop, but they signed up to the broad thrust or architecture. Those dates were included in the agreement and they were endorsed by all the parties. If there is any attempt to back off from those dates or from the agreement, the rationale—this is important—behind the St. Andrews agreement falls. We could spend a great deal of time—indeed, we spent much of the last month with Sinn Fein and the DUP, who were winding each other up—heading for failure. I shall explain that in detail later. The hon. Members for Argyll and Bute (Mr. Reid) and for Foyle asked whether the deadline is real. Yes, it is emphatically real, not just because it appears in the legislation, where clear dates are set for restoration and for an election, but for another reason. There is no prospect at all of me, as Secretary of State, or the Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (Mr. Hanson), or any of the ministerial team going to the business managers of the House and saying that we would like another emergency Northern Ireland Bill in the next few weeks or months because someone feels that they cannot quite deliver on the St. Andrews agreement that they signed up to. There is no chance at all of our doing that. Nor would there be a chance of any of the Northern Ireland parties being believed by Parliament if, after signing up to St. Andrews, we then came back with a fresh piece of legislation—a different position. The hon. Member for Belfast, North (Mr. Dodds) insisted that nobody could force or dragoon the DUP into restoration, and I agree with him. I cannot force or dragoon the DUP into restoration, and I would never try to do so; nor would anyone who was sensible or serious about this matter. I think that I am right in saying that the hon. Gentleman suggested that the devolution of policing and justice would probably not occur in his political lifetime. That point has also been made by other members of the DUP. It is absolutely right for members of any party to demand of Sinn Fein a credible and sustainable attitude to policing. However, it does not help at all for people to suggest that such things might never happen in their political lifetime, if ever, and I will explain why. This is about building mutual confidence and trust, and they will not be built by statements such as those—I must be absolutely blunt about that. The amendments are designed to achieve the one aim of diluting the deadline for the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly. If we agreed to that, we would be back on the same old merry-go-round: maybe sometime, maybe never, maybe we will get to March, or maybe it will be October next year, then when we get to October it may be the following April, then we will get to the following April and it will be the following October. This would go on and on and on. The problem with that would be that nobody would believe it any more. Judging by the contributions that have been made tonight, that is the problem that the DUP finds itself in. That is the predicament that we should be in if we agreed to the amendments. The deadline of 26 March 2007 is absolutely critical. It was a key feature of the St. Andrews agreement, as enshrined in the Bill. We would not have reached the St. Andrews agreement without that deadline being made absolutely clear. Some hon. Members have already pointed to previous deadlines and wondered, perhaps with some degree of cynicism, why this one would be any different. I can assure right hon. and hon. Members that the 26 March will see the end of current attempts to achieve restoration. Whether that means devolution or dissolution after that date is the choice of the Northern Ireland parties and the Northern Ireland people. I have been asked a lot of questions along the lines of, ““If this happens, what about that?”” and ““If an ard fheis is not called by this or that week, what will happen?”” I have been asked such questions by the hon. Members for Belfast, East (Mr. Robinson), for Lagan Valley (Mr. Donaldson) and for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson). In my position as Secretary of State, it is neither sensible nor in the interests of the process to answer ““what if”” questions. However, it is right to expect me to say—as I have already said—that it is important that Sinn Fein calls an ard fheis sooner rather than later. It has committed itself to doing that. It has already called an ard chomhairle, and it is committed to calling another. What matters now is that all the parties seek to build confidence and trust in each other, and that does not involve making the kind of statements about devolution perhaps not happening in someone’s political lifetime, if ever. That does not build mutual trust or confidence at all.