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Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Bill

I welcome the fact that the Minister is moving to tidy up an absurdity that had been built into the legislation, for all the procedural and logical reasons that he has pointed out. There was a political anomaly underlying the whole Justice Minister concept—the concept of the creation of a temporary Justice Minister post. I am aware of the circumstances in which the Government produced this idea. It was one of a number of vacuous models that were produced to deal with the issue of justice and policing in relation to departmental structures. We do not need to get hot and bothered about this matter beyond the procedural and logical points that the Minister has raised, because I do not think that this option will have to be pursued, and certainly not for the reasons that the Government thought they should introduce it in the first place.