Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Modification) (No 2) Order 2005

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Modification) (No. 2) Order 2005. The noble Lord said: This order was laid before the House on 25 May. The effect of the order is to extend the power to legislate on Northern Ireland matters by Order in Council for a further six months; that is, until 14 April 2006. Noble Lords have already agreed to the   extension of this power, originally set out in the Northern Ireland Act 2000, five times since the suspension of devolution in October 2002. I do not have to add to what I said in previous debates in this Room on Monday. This is not a completely satisfactory process. It is one into which we shall try to inject a bit more input in terms of legislating by order as I explained. We are working on that and we shall discuss that with colleagues as soon as possible. It is a distasteful process, and I regret, as does everyone else, that it is necessary at this time. We are committed, as indeed are the Government of the Republic, to the restoration of a fully inclusive devolved power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. We are operating at the moment a second-best system. Neither the people of Northern Ireland nor the Government want direct rule to continue. Restoring devolution will enable democratically elected politicians to take local decisions—some of which are quite tough by the way. At the moment they do not have to do it; it is done for them. The electorate should be able to hold them accountable; because we are not accountable to the electorate. As direct-rule Ministers we are accountable to this House and to the other place. We are not accountable to local politicians in Northern Ireland, whether they are Members of the Assembly or not. It is this House and the other place to which we are accountable. That is unsatisfactory, but that is the state of the matter at the moment. It is of course essential that we restore trust and confidence in the political process. Everybody knows what is required for that. We expect and hope that the forthcoming response from the IRA to the statement made by the president of Sinn Fein in April will provide credible and verifiable commitments on this   issue. If so, we would expect to see a Unionist willingness to participate in inclusive power-sharing government. A number of proposals have been put to us to increase democratic accountability in the mean time. Obviously my right honourable friend the Secretary of State will listen to this—and he has certainly discussed the issue and listened to recent representations from your Lordships—but the fact remains that any interim solution, pending full restoration of the agreement, must be acceptable to all parties. At the moment there is no consensus. As I have said, we hope to restore devolution at the earliest possible opportunity, but because of how the dates have worked out, with the Summer Recess and no September sitting, it is necessary for this order to be approved now before the Summer Recess. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Northern Ireland Act   2000 (Modification) (No. 2) Order 2005.—(Lord Rooker.)