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Northern Ireland Bill (Allocation of Time)

Let me try to find a way to come back to that. Amendment 2 seeks to prevent the Assembly from resolving to remove the Justice Minister in the transitional period up to 1 May 2012. I think that the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland would argue that that is for reasons of fairness and sustainability, to use the term that he has just used. Amendment 4 provides that the Justice Minister can be removed only if the Assembly resolves that the Minister has been convicted of a criminal offence; has become bankrupt or made an agreement with his creditors; is not committed to non-violent and exclusively peaceful and democratic means; or is otherwise unable or unfit to discharge his functions. Those are all issues that I think we can understand, and the hon. Gentleman puts them forward in the context of pursuing fairness and stability. Let us see whether they will provide those qualities. As I have already said, the arrangements in the Bill relating to the appointment and removal of the Justice Minister reflect the explicit recommendations of the Assembly and Executive Review Committee, which were voted on and endorsed by the Assembly on 20 January. What would happen if the House were to accept an amendment that railroaded a decision made in the Assembly, on the basis that the hon. Gentleman just did not like it, and that it could be unfair? A democratic majority on the Assembly and Executive Review Committee has considered the provision and produced a report, and the matter has been debated in the Assembly. It was voted on and was passed not by a small majority but by a significant one. Can we really say, "I don’t think that’s good enough"? If the test is to be stability, that would be the quickest way of installing instability at the very beginning, before those in Northern Ireland have even begun to discuss what shape or form the Justice Department might take.