Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I very much support my noble friend in her amendment, but I will speak to Amendment 5 i...

My Lords, I echo the sentiments in the speech by the noble Lord, Lord Murphy. Briefly, I repeat t...

Hear, hear.

The noble Lord is from Dungannon, I understand. No? Forgive me.

The Belfast/Good Friday agr...

My Lords, the NDNA deal has been mentioned, as it often is. NDNA was not a single issue. There we...

My Lords, I wish to associate myself with those noble Lords who are sad that this is not being de...

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Deben, I deeply regret that this issue is being dealt with he...

My Lords, once again we are dealing with an issue that was the responsibility of the Northern Ire...

My Lords, I am grateful to all those who have spoken to the first group of amendments before us. ...

I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

We now come to the group beginning with Amendment 2. The noble Baroness, Lady Harris of Richmond,...

Moved by

Lord Murphy of Torfaen

2: Clause 1, page 2, leave out lines 5 to 11

Me...

My Lords, I add my thoughts to those of the Minister regarding my noble friend Lady Ritchie, who ...

The noble Baroness, Lady Harris of Richmond, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Baroness...

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 39, which is also in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Rit...

My Lords, I very much welcome the probing amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, and t...

My Lords, I add my best wishes to the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, and wish her well. This morni...

My Lords, with permission, I will speak to Amendments 2, 20, 37 and 39. This set of probing amend...

My Lords, I note all the probing amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, and the noble Baron...

My Lords, very briefly, we are talking about equality and respect, but are we also talking about ...

Amendment 18 in this group would amend the duty on public authorities to one of compliance with b...

My Lords, I raised this issue in my Second Reading speech and I am happy to speak to these amendm...

My Lords, I again thank noble Lords for their amendments in this group, which broadly focus on th...

I thank the Minister for that explanation. Can he just tell the Committee why the Northern Irelan...

I am very familiar with that case, because I was an adviser in the Northern Ireland Office at the...

I am old enough to have been through all the debates on the flags. There was no doubt whatever th...

I am extremely grateful to my noble friend, who makes a very powerful point. I agree with him ent...

I have very bad hearing, and I did not hear whether the noble Lord used the Sinn Féin term of “no...

I was talking about Northern Ireland, which is the constitutional phrase for the six counties whi...

That is not the answer to my question.

My Lords, I think we should probably move on. In summary, the provisions of the Bill—

Before we move on, because these matters are important, there is a report, I think in today’s new...

I can: there has been a review of the number of days on which the union flag is flown officially ...

My Lords, I have just a few brief points to make. At the moment, 1998 appears to be a favourite d...

Before we come on to Amendment 7, I should announce that Amendment 43A, to be debated with this g...

Moved by

Lord Morrow

7: Clause 1, page 3, line 22, leave out from first “the” to end ...

Not moved. Oh, sorry—I was not listening intently. I beg your pardon. I will move my amendment; n...

My Lords, I support the four amendments that have just been spoken to. However, my worry about al...

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 43A in the name of my noble friend Lord Morrow, but, before I...

Does the noble Lord agree that the expenditure undertaken in these areas by local authorities als...

The noble Lord makes a very good point, which is often overlooked when we talk about these issues...

My Lords, again, I am very grateful to all noble Lords who spoke to this group of amendments. I s...

I am most grateful to the Minister. I am not constrained by anything Dame Arlene might have said ...

I am grateful to my noble friend. On this, as on many issues, I have a huge amount of respect for...

My Lords, I listened carefully to what the Minister said. Perhaps I am overconfident but I detect...

Moved by

Lord Dodds of Duncairn

8: Clause 1, page 3, line 33, at end insert—

“(...

My Lords, I will talk to Amendments 8, 12, 31 and 45 in my name and that of the noble Lords, Lord...

My Lords, I oppose this proposal simply because it is not something for this Parliament. We are h...

I listened very carefully to what the noble Lord had to say. When it comes to a spirit of generos...

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Dodds of Duncairn for the way in which moved his amendment...

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his response and for the manner in which he has dealt...

Moved by

Lord Lexden

9: After Clause 1, insert the following new Clause—

“Castl...

My Lords, I am glad to find myself in the company of unionist noble friends in this group of two ...

My Lords, I added my name to this amendment. It reminds me of an issue in a negotiation that has ...

My Lords, briefly, I support the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, in his amendment. I am currently readin...

My Lords, Amendment 10 is in my name. I have good news for noble Lords: this will be my briefest ...

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to respond to the speeches that have been made on this group of ...

My Lords, that seems a very satisfactory basis on which to leave the matter. I hope unionist frie...

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, sent a nice note to me in the chair to explain why she h...

Moved by

Baroness Goudie

13: Clause 2, page 5, leave out lines 21 to 23

Member'...

My Lords, I am moving this amendment on behalf of my noble friend Lady Ritchie. Briefly, we put t...

I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, for speaking to these amendments on behalf...

I thank the Minister and beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Moved by

Lord Morrow

33: Clause 3, page 9, line 30, leave out “facilitation”

My Lords, I will seek to be brief but I will not be as brief as the last time I spoke. I know tha...

My Lords, unlike a good wine, sometimes negotiations do not age well. Sometimes we get it right; ...

My Lords, accepting the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Empey, I do not believe that there is...

Once again, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Morrow, for the way in which he moved his ...

My Lords, having listened carefully to the Minister—again, he has enticed me enough for me to wit...

Moved by

Lord Murphy of Torfaen

40: Clause 6, page 11, line 36, at end insert—

...

My Lords, we now come to quite a difficult part of the Bill, in my view. The Minister referred to...

My Lords, this amendment would require the Secretary of State to make a Statement to the Commons ...

My Lords, I must say, I take a similar view to the noble Lord, Lord Morrow. For three years, when...

He would not have taken your side.

Or the other side. Whichever—the point is still valid. I am just saying that, if you throw out or...

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 43, to which I have put my name. I would in fact have put my ...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, has eloquently set out the dangers of the approach that th...

Not having been intimately involved in the New Decade, New Approach negotiations, is the noble Lo...

I am grateful to the noble Lord. A lot of those questions are for the Minister; I look forward to...

I agree with what the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, said about Amendment 40, which I co-signed. It is p...

My Lords, some very important constitutional points have been brought up in this debate, and I kn...

My Lords, I again thank noble Lords across the Committee for the amendments that have been tabled...

I am most grateful to the Minister for his last comment, but this is a fundamental issue around t...

I am grateful to my noble friend; I will touch on what he said shortly, I think. I give my assura...

Well, there we are. My Lords, it is not easy. My heart tells me that the noble Lords, Lord Empey ...

The solution is the agreement. Let us suppose Sinn Féin proposes a convicted murderer or somebody...

Yes, I understand, and if I was the Secretary of State under those circumstances, I would not inv...

I am following the noble Lord very closely. He is absolutely right to say that these are uncomfor...

Of course. No one said that any of this is easy; far from it. When he wound up, the Minister was ...

My Lords, I can be very brief. I have listened intently to what the Minister has said, and to wha...

I apologise for having to take issue with the noble Lord right at the conclusion of the debate, b...

I am speaking now about Clause 7, which the Minister is very familiar with. Furthermore, as was m...

My Lords, I hope the procedural gods will forgive me for allowing that, but I think it was very i...