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Financial Services Bill

I thank the Minister for that indication, which I take to be a bit more positive than what he said previously. We will try to get our skates on at our end if the Minister can continue to be accommodating and encouraging at his. I want to make it clear that this problem is not of anybody's intentional making. It was created by people who wanted to be helpful. Mo Mowlam deliberately used the Northern Ireland Act 1988 to include the Credit Unions (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 in the scope of devolution. The order was quite restrictive in its own right, but that was what was devolved, not credit unions. The Minister said that Northern Ireland credit unions asked to be exempted from the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Essentially, a sensitivity was created to the effect that it would have been encroaching on the territory of devolution for the regulatory function to reside with the FSA. People now have a different understanding of these issues, but the most important thing is that they want to know that there is a sense of urgency about this matter among all of us in government—whether that be here in this House, or in the Executive or the Assembly. I take the Minister's remarks as a very good cue for us to move fast on this matter. We need to be firm and secure an outcome that has been long awaited, but there is more work to do and I want the matter to be taken forward later in the Bill. Accordingly, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the clause. Clause, by leave, withdrawn.