Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, I, too, welcome this order and the constitutional changes that it brings to our Province. We are where we are today as a result of the courage and the amazing efforts of successive governments. I, too, wish to pay tribute to past governments, the present Government, Secretaries of State and the people of Northern Ireland. I pay tribute not least to Mr Mandelson, David Trimble and...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, I am sure that the noble Earl knows better than I. I do not have the facts at my fingertips. We know the potential of the mainstream terrorists, but we must realise the potential of the dissidents. They are more sophisticated than they have ever been and in my view they are as strong in numbers as they were in 1972, the early days of the campaign. Your Lordships can see the...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords--
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, there are two issues I wish to mention. The Patten report and the Government mention the speed of implementation being governed by how the security situation develops. The yardstick for gauging the security situation seems to mean two entirely different things to different people. On the one hand, to most people who live outside Northern Ireland it means the level of violence and...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, I too strongly support the Bill as a necessity and the only way of preserving the progress so far of the implementation of the Good Friday agreement. I endorse the comments made with reference to the fact that we do not have the de Chastelain report to read. I join others in asking the Minister why that is so. The vast majority--that is to say, everyone except those inextricably...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, I, too, should like to thank the noble Baroness for bringing about this debate. I must apologise to her and to the Minister in that I am booked on the last possible flight this evening and, sadly, it will not wait for me. We are all aware that the overriding issues in the Province today are the development of the political situation, or the stalemate of it, and the security...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, first, I must declare an interest in that I am involved in tourism in Northern Ireland. After being stifled by terrorism, Northern Ireland should see the dawn of a dramatic expansion of tourism. However, we have exchange rate problems like everyone else. The value of our currency, as the BTA say, may be only part of the story in the decision-making process of potential tourists....
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, I have been unable to take part in the proceedings on the Bill until now because of my committee work and because I have had to be out of the country. I should like to express my welcome for government Amendment No. 12, as well as to support Amendment No. 11. In today's world, it is of key importance that we address the challenges of modern conflict resolution. Conflict resolution...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, could I ask the Minister to explain why we have no prohibition on talking to the press? Years ago we had such a prohibition on the IRA or other terrorists talking to the press. That was a public platform, and really in the case of this amendment it is very much less of a public platform than appearing on television. Therefore I would still like to see this amendment accepted,...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, I feel rather inadequate in following the noble Lord, Lord Fitt. I only hope that the situation does not turn out to be as depressing as some of us have reason to believe it might. I welcome the Government's willingness to improve the Bill at later stages. The vast proportion of the Bill is most welcome and comes from the chief constable's review, which was not complete when Chris...
Viscount Brookeborough: My Lords, can the Minister reassure us that he will answer the questions that naturally he has been unable to take the time to answer now, not in papers in the Library, as many of us will not come over from Northern Ireland or elsewhere during the Recess, but in writing to us?
Viscount Brookeborough: I support the amendment. The name of the police force is extremely important, not only to the force but to the people of Northern Ireland. When we talk about a new beginning, we are talking about two new beginnings. The Government are talking about a new beginning where they hope--we all hope--that Roman Catholics will join the RUC. Sinn Fein/IRA is thinking about a different beginning. It is...
Viscount Brookeborough: I rise to support this amendment. We need to retain a certain degree of continuity in this area. It is not enough merely to discuss new beginnings and, in so doing, discard all that has gone before. I have been informed that up to 30 per cent of the membership of community police liaison committees is Roman Catholic. For that reason, it is extremely important to ensure that we give credit to...
Viscount Brookeborough: I support this group of amendments in general and Amendment No. 57 in particular. The Minister wrote to me after the debate at Second Reading: "I should point out that DPPs will not have the same access to sensitive information as the Policing Board". The policing board is Province-wide. We all recognise that the DPP will not have access to such sensitive material as might occur on a...
Viscount Brookeborough: Perhaps the Minister will clarify one point in subsection (4)(a) of the amendment. It refers to those who, "are not currently serving in the police". Does that refer to those who are not service in any police force or simply the police force of Northern Ireland?
Viscount Brookeborough: I too support the aims of the 50:50 proposal, as do most other Members of the Committee who come from Northern Ireland. I do not believe that there is any question about that. On the other hand, if we have that pool of people who have passed the entry exam to become part of the recruitment pool, how are they rated within that pool? I have a note from the noble and learned Lord which says:...
Viscount Brookeborough: I am grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. We do not have those numbers at present. Surely by virtue of what the Minister said, if out of 2000 people that pass this level there are only 20 Roman Catholics in the top 50 for the first course, once you have chosen the 20 plus 50 Protestants, or ethnic minorities being other than Roman Catholic, you will have to search lower down the order...
Viscount Brookeborough: But you will therefore have accepted somebody from lower down the order of merit than others of either an ethnic minority or Protestant, something other than Roman Catholic who are higher. Numbers 51, 52 and 53 could be Muslim, Chinese or whatever. However, you have gone to number 250 in the order of merit to achieve 50:50 by taking a Roman Catholic from further down the list.
Viscount Brookeborough: I support the amendment and agree with those noble Lords who have said that it is all encompassing. The emblem contains the harp and the shamrock, both of which were around a long time before the IRA. Long before English people went there, the shamrock was growing for thousands of years in the boggy ground. It is a very appropriate emblem. While someone may say that he knows the mind of the...
Viscount Brookeborough: I support the amendment, in that by inserting "promote, wherever practicable" it puts the objective in writing. Although certain arrangements are written down and dealt with officially they do not have much effect on the ground. From my service experience, the only arrangement that worked on the ground was almost secretive. When we or the Garda crossed the border in effect it had to be...
