My Lords, I must say that the final debate of this evening has been fascinating. There are times where I am glad I am not the Minister, and this is one of them. There are quite convincing and interesting arguments on both sides. I remember that the late Lord Cledwyn Hughes, when he chaired the Parliamentary Labour Party, would start his deliberation as chairman by saying: “There are pros and cons for and there are pros and cons against.” That is the case here.
It is about protection. My noble friends Lady Ritchie and Lady Goudie were talking about protecting this legislation, protecting the agreement that has produced the legislation so that something which in the past, as we all know, brought down the Assembly for three years ought not to happen again. Of course, we have to ensure that the legislation is balanced for both nationalists and unionists and, indeed, other members of the community in Northern Ireland. I quite understand the need for reassurance but then there is the other protection: the protection for devolution. It would be much easier, by the way, if the Assembly and the Executive were functioning because the argument would be much more effective but, of course, they are not and that is one of the problems. Because there is no real, effective Assembly or Government in Northern Ireland, it is very difficult to ensure that there is certainty about this legislation when they are not there. I can understand that too.
As I said in Committee, when I was the Secretary of State I felt deeply uncomfortable about making decisions for people in Northern Ireland when I was a Member for a Welsh valley constituency. It was for the people of Northern Ireland to decide what they had to do. On schools, education, language, culture or whatever it might be, it is for those people in Northern Ireland who were elected by the people of Northern Ireland to make the decisions. They have elected them and, frankly, it is about time they got into government. I understand all the issues that underlie why that is not happening.
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I urge one thing on what I assume will be a sort of new Government over the next couple of weeks, perhaps even days: for heaven’s sake, start negotiating and talking. Start getting around the table with the political parties in Northern Ireland, the Irish Government and whoever is involved to try to resolve all these issues. Half the difficulties we have had, whether with the Northern Ireland protocol, this or anything else, are because people are not trying to resolve it by having decent negotiations. That has to happen.
We are uncomfortable with this; we do not like it. I know the Minister has given us a concession in the amendment I moved in Committee, which was that if the Secretary of State takes these powers there will be an opportunity in both Houses to debate the decision that he or she has taken. Without pre-empting what the Minister is going to say, I note that there will be two Statements a year indicating what has happened. I ask only that if the Statement is due in July and there is a crisis in March, the Secretary of State comes along to Parliament and gives the Statement then—not automatically at certain times of the year, irrespective of what happens in Northern Ireland.
I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say. It is a difficult dilemma, respecting devolution on the one hand but ensuring the protection of this legislation on the other.