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Northern Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time)

That is absolutely so. If we make legislation in haste, we make it badly. Moreover, the approach adopted by the Government can be the thin end of the wedge, as other Ministers on other occasions can say that it is imperative to pass a Bill. I return to my central point, which is that, if the many hours spent in Committee or on Report are to have any purpose or meaning, they must ensure that we avoid any unforeseen elephant traps in a piece of legislation by crafting it in the best possible way. That is precisely what we are not doing by seeing this Bill through all its stages in one day. Restricting all stages of this Bill to one day is also an abdication of our responsibility. The House of Lords will devote two days to the Bill, and its Members will be aware that the House of Commons did not really look at some of the issues that will be touched on by speakers later this afternoon. In his brief remarks earlier, the hon. Member for South Down (Mr. McGrady) touched on something that I had not totally understood. I endeavoured to grapple with the detail and complexity of the Bill in order to table some amendments that I hoped would either improve the proposals or give us greater understanding of what the draftsmen intended. However, it looks as though I did not take full cognisance of one of the points that the hon. Gentleman referred to—that is, what will happen if there is a failure to agree. I also notice that our friends in the Social Democrat and Labour party have tabled amendments that relate to the judiciary rather than to policing. I want to examine the inferences and implications of those amendments, but there is no opportunity to do so. This Bill, which is being passed in one day, would, if it related to England and Wales, be pored over by this House and by another place. As a result, errors might occur that could have serious consequences in a particular case, and they might also cause additional and unforeseen political confrontation some way into the future. Reference has been made to the two documents that the House authorities, to their eternal credit, squeezed out of the Northern Ireland Office. However, those documents arrived too late. I understand that the correct technical term is to say that the documents are covered by the "Keeling schedules". In 1937, the then Speaker, Sir Edward Keeling, sent a memo to the Prime Minister of the day, saying that they had to ensure that the House of Commons was fully acquainted with the consequences of legislation that amends other primary legislation in detail. That memo set an extremely important precedent for the documents before us today. However, a glance through the Keeling schedules relating to this afternoon’s business reveals the complexity of the task before us and makes it clear that we need to make cross-references. Unfortunately, the two documents to which I have referred arrived too late for all that. The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland party has not been mentioned yet this afternoon. I think that the Liberal Democrat party may act as its agent in this place, and I look forward to hearing the Alliance party’s opinion about these matters. However, it would have been good to have time to discuss the Keeling schedules and some of the amendments with the Alliance party itself, as one might say that it is the unspoken elephant in the room. I may be wrong, but I think that the intention is that someone from the Alliance party—perhaps they have been anointed—will occupy the Ministry of Justice post. It would certainly be sensible if hon. Members in the Commons at least had the opportunity to discuss the proposed amendments in detail with members of that party. That, of course, has been denied to us.