Rt Hon David Trimble: I have a lot of sympathy with the Government new clauses. As the Home Secretary knows, this Parliament is still responsible for criminal law in Northern Ireland and several measures in the Bill already extend to Northern Ireland. Given that he is introducing new proposals, has he consulted the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on them? What response has he received from the Northern...
Rt Hon David Trimble: I apologise to those who speak after me. I fear that duties elsewhere in the House will take me away. Reference has been made to the fact that this is the second time in a couple of months that the Government have come to the House to make changes to arrangements in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately I was not present when the first such change was debated, but I have looked at the reports of...
Rt Hon David Trimble: I want to make something else clear, which refers to comments from the same quarter. My colleagues and I have no fear of an election or of its result. [Laughter.] Indeed, I am confident that when the result emerged some of the laughter we are hearing would be wiped away. I am confident that we would make gains and take seats that some of the Members sitting on my left currently occupy.
Rt Hon David Trimble: No. I will make my points.
Rt Hon David Trimble: I will make my points, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I hope to make them without interruption. We were confident about our campaign. The start of the DUP's campaign featured plenty of signs of panic. I am sure that if it had continued in that vein, my predictions would have come true. I will not go into the mistakes that it made during its campaign, because I hope very much that it repeats them...
Rt Hon David Trimble: No. My final query is to the Government: how do they plan to bring about an ending of suspension in circumstances that will enable the Assembly to function properly? It is all very well for Government to say and to give the hope that, somehow in a month or two or whatever it may be, we will be able to come back and to proceed in the way we all want to, but the Government must think seriously...
Rt Hon David Trimble: This is the second time that the hon. Gentleman has mentioned the so-called 15-month delay. In fact, 12 of those months were occupied by the inevitable and necessary transitional arrangements that had to be made, but there had been an election to an Assembly. As matters stand at the moment, there is no Assembly.
Rt Hon David Trimble: I thank the Secretary of State and other hon. Members for their comments on the incident at my party's headquarters this morning. As hon. Members may know, an envelope containing a device and addressed to me was being opened by one of my researchers when the device was activated. Had it operated in the way in which the people who made it planned, that gentleman could have received fatal...
Rt Hon David Trimble: The Government have clearly brought themselves into a situation in which they are open to criticism for their decision, which was made at the last minute and in a rather incoherent way. If they had been thinking more carefully and more clearly about the situation, things would have been better. I have to say also that the Secretary of State has added somewhat to the confusion with some of his...
Rt Hon David Trimble: The Secretary of State referred in his statement to the Prime Minister's speech at the Belfast Harbour Commission last October and his reference to a fork in the road. Does he also recall the reference in that speech to this not being yet another inch-by-inch negotiation? The Prime Minister's objective was rightly to try to change the way in which things are done, and the expectations with...
Rt Hon David Trimble: The Secretary of State knows that the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach are planning to go to Northern Ireland tomorrow. Reference has been made to a joint declaration that, I understand, indicates the sort of things that the Government might do in the event of acts of completion from the Irish republican movement. Does the Secretary of State agree that, in that case, it would be extremely...
Rt Hon David Trimble: I beg to move amendment No. 48, in page 10, line 12, leave out clause 13.
Rt Hon David Trimble: This series of amendments applies to clause 13, which deals with the appointment of independent members. As drafted, it imposes on the board a duty to ensure that the members of the board, taken together, are representative of the community in the district. It is noteworthy that that is the first statutory provision setting out criteria for the appointment of independent members. The key...
Rt Hon David Trimble: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his contribution. The issue is important. It tends to sour relations with those in other parties who take an interest in Northern Ireland if the Northern Ireland Office does not communicate with them successfully. Having discovered the existence of the code of practice, it was interesting to see what it said about the appointment of independent members....
Rt Hon David Trimble: The Minister says that the code of practice meets the case. Where does the code of practice refer to the desirability of people having expertise in matters of public safety?
Rt Hon David Trimble: But not expertise.
Rt Hon David Trimble: I have noted the Minister's comments. I know that her response was hurried, but I regret to say that I find it wholly inadequate. The Patten report is clear about the need for solid expertise, and that does not appear in the code of practice. I ask the Minister to re-examine the matter. I had advised other hon. Members earlier that we did not intend to have any further Divisions, so that...
Rt Hon David Trimble: I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I agree that there is no easy way of dealing with these matters, but his exposition of the situation as he saw it might have been helped if he had been clearer about using the past tense in referring to people with various backgrounds. The situations that are envisaged will come about only if those with paramilitary backgrounds have clearly given up...
Rt Hon David Trimble: Time is getting on and we want to get on to the next group of amendments, so I shall try to confine my comments to a few salient points. The Minister was remarkably frank and I was glad that one word was absent from her contribution and indeed those of some other hon. Members—the word "Patten". What we are dealing with tonight has no sanction at all in the Patten report. The report...
Rt Hon David Trimble: The Minister said a few moments ago that the functions of the sub-groups mirror the majority of functions for the group for Belfast as a whole, yet she has also referred to them being identical to those set out in section 16. Will she identify what functions will remain solely in the purview of the Belfast DPP rather than being devolved or transferred to the sub-groups?