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Merchant Shipping (Light Dues) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, before my noble friend Lord Glentoran comes steaming in from the opposite direction, which I am sure he is about to do, I support the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, most strongly. I, too, have raised this question in this House on more than one occasion—by dint of an Oral Question, I seem to recall, on the last occasion. Other than for historic reasons—which are now long gone, as the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, said—there is no rationale whatever to continue to support the Irish Lights for shipping coming into the United Kingdom; it simply does not make any sense. I hope the Minister will not say, as his predecessors have, "We will try to persuade the Irish to come round to our way of thinking". That time has long since gone.