Postponement of Local Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 2009

I thank the noble Baroness for such a clear description of the order. In principle, I have no objections to it. I am fully conversant with the reasons behind it, but I am sorry that we are changing to 11 local authorities and not to seven. We fought over the numbers for some time, and the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, and I were very much on the same side. However, somehow we both managed to lose, which is a remarkable piece of parliamentary work. The noble Baroness made a great deal of the postponement and the potential new date. I strongly support her comments and would go a stage further in asking for a marker to be put in the order, forcing the Government of the day to inform Parliament of progress. To reduce the number of local authorities in Northern Ireland from 26 to 11 is very complex. As the noble Baroness has said, there will be significant arguments, debates and disagreements. With the other things that go on in Northern Ireland, I can easily see this date slipping. Any slippage beyond the middle of 2011 would be a serious dent to democracy in the Province. Will the Government consider putting in a time mark to force the Government of the day to report to Parliament on what is happening and how close they are to meeting May 2011, which is the deadline that I have in my mind? Other than that, I am very content with this order.