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Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Bill

It is incredible on one level, but not on another. Members of the DUP feel that the Government are here to do their job for them. Indeed, my hon. Friend has made my point—members of the DUP can remain safe in the knowledge that the Government are making changes on their behalf, and defending and justifying those changes; they do not have to be here to justify them themselves. That is what this process has boiled down to. It is a competition between Sinn Fein and the DUP to see who can take away the most—to see who can force the Government to stand up and justify their position, without their having to do it. If Sinn Fein can get the Government to present legislation here for them, without their having to be here, DUP members are probably asking, in the name of equality, why they should have to be here to seek their changes, if the Government can do it for them instead. That is exactly the problem that we face, and it shows the contempt with which this process and this House are being treated. The DUP Members know that have already got what they want from the Government, and that is good enough for them, but it does not prevent them from trying to push back deadlines and throw other spanners in the works. In fairness, one member of the DUP was here and did ask me questions, which I said I would address. Both she and the hon. Member for Belfast, East mentioned the decisions on maternity services in Belfast, including that taken by Bairbre de Brun, who happened to be a Sinn Fein Minister. The decision that Bairbre de Brun took was in keeping with the decision that the direct rule Minister preceding her was planning to take. It was based on the prevailing, overwhelming and clear medical advice that the best place to site maternity services in Belfast was the Royal Victoria hospital, because it had paediatric services. Contrary to the insinuation by the hon. Member for Belfast, East that Bairbre de Brun took the decision simply to favour her own constituency, I would argue that many of the objections to her decision were based precisely on the fact that the hospital was in west Belfast. I do not think that she took the decision because the hospital is in west Belfast; indeed, a lot of people disagreed with it because it is in west Belfast. However, under this legislation, we could end up with no decision on such an issue. Everybody agreed that for the sake of maternity services in Belfast, a decision had to be taken in favour of one site. We could no longer maintain maternity services at both the Belfast City hospital and the Royal Victoria hospital. Under the Bill before us, a Minister of health might want to take such a decision again. A health Minister would have to go to the Executive and if three other Ministers disagreed—for whatever reasons, including their own partisan or constituency reasons—we would end up with no decision being taken.