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Northern Ireland Arms Decommissioning Act 1997 (Amnesty Period) Order 2007

I will be glad to do that, but I am returning to the issue. Two other points were made in the debate which I shall answer. I do not want to raise the temperature and I appreciate that the Secretary of State has gone round unknowingly upsetting some noble Lords. However, I have to say that I agree with the Secretary of State’s remarks in relation to David Ervine. I had only fleeting contact with David Ervine, but I knew him more from the television over here. Certainly, the evidence was that he was a courageous and remarkable individual who strived to bring loyalism through a transition to a peaceful path. That must be worth paying tribute to in the context of Northern Ireland. On the point about him trying to make an arrangement with the Ulster Unionist Party and the Assembly group, I understand that it was a matter for the presiding officer of the Assembly to resolve. Apparently, she took independent legal advice before she ruled that the Ulster Unionists and the Progressive Unionists were not a party for the purposes of the Assembly. That was where that proposal fell by the wayside. The order has received a broad welcome and I do not think that anyone will make and indication against it—although we do not vote in Grand Committee. It is an invitation repeated with the best of intentions to enable the loyalists, the paramilitaries, with dignity to decommission their arms. That is the way to the future. On Question, Motion agreed to.