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Electoral Administration Act 2006 (Regulation of Loans etc.: Northern Ireland) Order 2008

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking the Minister for outlining this order. I do not wish to make heavy weather out of it, because there is no heavy weather to be made out of it. The Minister said that the order is necessary in the improving state of affairs in Northern Ireland. We look forward to a day when it will not be totally necessary, which may be after 2012. The order indicates that it allows Irish citizens and Irish bodies to enter into financial transactions. What about people who live in the Irish Republic and are not UK-registered voters but who do not regard themselves as Irish citizens—they regard themselves possibly as British citizens or as British-type organisations? They are not Irish, and under the Belfast agreement they are entitled not to be Irish if they do not wish to be. How does the order cope with them? Apart from that one query, the group to which I subscribe will be supporting the order.