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Electricity (Single Wholesale Market) (Northern Ireland) Order 2007

We also generally welcome the legislation. Before getting into the substance of the matter, I want to draw attention to some terminology. Terminology on matters connected with this subject can be very dangerous. It is very easy for people to make slips, particularly when describing geographic areas. I draw attention to the interpretation article of the order which defines the single electricity market in this way: "““that is to say the new arrangements in Northern Ireland and Ireland””." I ask the Committee to note the terminology used: ““Northern Ireland and Ireland””, and Ireland does not comprehend Northern Ireland. That is entirely correct. It was a consequence of the Belfast agreement of 1998 that the changes made to the constitutional law of both United Kingdom and Ireland brought into existence a new definition in Irish constitutional law of ““Ireland””. ““Ireland”” now means what people in the past called the 26 counties, the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland. Those old terms are now obsolete and the correct description of the political entity to the south of us in Northern Ireland is Ireland. Using the term ““Ireland”” now refers only to that entity and does not include Northern Ireland. This is the modern terminology that people should use. I realise that people tend to repeat old terminology and easily make mistakes. I noticed that particularly when I was looking at the otherwise interesting 12th report of the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee, which, in its concluding paragraph on this, talks about establishing unified markets for electricity and gas in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The use of the term ““Republic of Ireland”” shows that the Merits Committee is still very much in a pre-1998 mindset, as indeed are some others who have contributed to this debate. In introducing this, the Minister referred to how in Northern Ireland and Ireland there had been two small isolated markets. That is absolutely right. One of the consequences is that we in Northern Ireland were—and still are—paying the highest electricity prices of any part of the United Kingdom. Consequently, when we formed the Administration in 1999, our intention was to see what could be done to reduce electricity costs and energy costs generally. That is why our objective right from the outset was not only to have the electricity interconnector but also to have a gas interconnection. That was extremely difficult to achieve, but we did it and managed to ensure that there would be a gas network for all of Northern Ireland. To achieve that, my colleague Sir Reg Empey had to sell the Irish Government the idea of creating a pipe network around the whole island of Ireland—that is, including Ireland and Northern Ireland—in a single network and persuade them that they would benefit by adding a second gas interconnector, which would give them stability of supply. That enabled what the Northern Ireland Office has, for its own reasons, decided to term the ““single electricity market””, as though it existed in Ireland and Northern Ireland alone, whereas, as the Minister pointed out, it will essentially be a British Isles market. Part of the reason for enhancing the electricity interconnector was to enable Scottish electricity generators to sell electricity to Ireland, where they have a shortage of generating capacity. That demonstrates how this is upgrading essentially as a British Isles market, but we have this little bit of persiflage about a single island market, a single energy market and all the rest of the terminology which the current Secretary of State has been using as though he invented it, something of great significance and to do with bringing about an all-island economy, which is also another bit of useless verbiage. It leads some people to suspect, as the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, suspected, some political motivation, but that motivation is only in the more deluded recesses of the mind of the present Secretary of State and does not reflect reality. I hope that nobody is put off by the Secretary of State’s effusions on this subject. The substance of the matter will be for the benefit of people in Northern Ireland and Ireland by introducing competition, more supply and, I hope, by getting prices down to more reasonable levels, which we have long sought to achieve.