Northern Ireland Bill (Hansard, 29 July 1982)

§ 2. Mr. Arnold
asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is his programme for the implementation of the Northern Ireland Bill.

§ 5. Mr. Kenneth Lewis
asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what period of campaigning is being proposed for elections to the new Assembly in October; and on what date it is proposed that the new Assembly should meet.

§ 9. Mr. Flannery
asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he has ascertained whether any of the political parties of Northern Ireland have decided against taking part in the elections for the proposed Northern Ireland Assembly.

§ 10. Sir William van Straubenzee
asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he expects elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly to be held.

§ Mr. Prior
The election to the Northern Ireland Assembly will take place on Wednesday 20 October. I shall soon be making the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections Order 1982, which is subject to negative resolution, and which will include the election timetable and the rules for the conduct of the election. None of the Northern Ireland parties has said that it will not contest the election. No date has yet been fixed for the first meeting of the Assembly.

§ Mr. Arnold
I congratulate my right hon. Friend and the Cabinet upon their courage in perservering with the Northern Ireland legislation during its passage through the House? Will my right hon. Friend take the opportunity fairly soon to point out to the SDLP the considerable advantages being offered to all political parties in Northern Ireland in the legislation, coupled with a warning that that party may well face political oblivion if it does not participate?

§ Mr. Prior
As to the latter part of my hon. Friend's supplementary question, I hope that all political parties will take part in the elections. It is in their interest that they should do so. I thank him for his kind words. Congratulations on this or any other subject are hard to come by in the House.

Several Hon. Members
rose—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. I intend to call first the three hon. Members whose questions are being answered.

§ Mr. Lewis
Will my right hon. Friend assure the House that when the Assembly operates many of the general debates and debates on orders dealing with Northern Ireland that take place will be transferred to the Assembly so that we may lighten the load in the House?

§ Mr. Prior
While I hope that the Assembly will debate all the draft orders and many others as well, they will still have to come to the House until there is devolution, after which the responsibility will no longer be ours. I hope that the result of the Northern Ireland people and their elected Assembly having an opportunity to discuss those matters might mean some limitation of the time that they take here.

§ Mr. Flannery
Even though none of the political parties has said that it will not take part in the election, is there not grave doubt whether the SDLP will take part? Is the Minister aware of any reason why the SDLP has grave doubts about taking part in the election?

§ Mr. Prior
I hope that the hon. Gentleman will use his influence to persuade the SDLP to take part. It has doubts about whether the proposals go far enough to meet its point of view, and the same doubt has been expressed in the opposite direction by the right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell) and the hon. Member for Antrim, South (Mr. Molyneaux).

§ Sir William van Straubenzee
May I congratulate my hon. right hon. Friend on surviving the harassment from behind him at the height of the commitment of young men to the Falklands crisis, which was a period of shame for many members of the Tory Party?

§ Mr. Budgen
What rubbish.

§ Sir William van Straubenzee
Does my right hon. Friend understand that it was necessary to fill the vacuum caused by the present political gap in Northern Ireland and that many of his hon. Friends wish him well in his endeavours?

§ Mr. Prior
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I share his view that there has been and remains in Northern Ireland a political vacuum that must be filled. It is right that it should be filled by the people of Northern Ireland playing a major part in their own affairs, and I hope that they will do so. I hope that now that the debate is over in this House for the time being even my hon. Friends who have opposed the move most strongly will rally round to make the Assembly work.

Mr. J. Enoch Powell
What is the point of making an order that is subject to the negative procedure if the House will have no opportunity, should it so wish, to negative it before it comes into force?

§ Mr. Prior
Because that is the procedure that has to be adopted.

Mr. Powell
It is an insult to the House.

§ Mr. Fitt
Does the Secretary of State agree that a number of his predecessors have accepted that, although direct rule may be a second best option, it is not the answer to Northern Ireland's problems and that the only way to make political progress is to bring about a situation in which the majority and minority community representatives can arrive at an accommodation in the interests of the whole community? Will he take it from me, as a founder member and former leader of the SDLP, that not all its members are opposed to fighting elections, that a small contingent is taking orders from the Taoiseach, whose advice is not to take part in the elections, and that the SDLP as a party will, unless the moon or sun falls from the sky, be fighting the elections?

§ Mr. Prior
I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's comments, particularly in the earlier part of his supplementary question, and for the general support that he has given the Government and myself in piloting the Bill through the House. I recognise that there are differences of opinion in all the main political parties of Northern Ireland, but I understood that they were all 1216 committed to devolution. Listening to the right hon. Member for Down, South I begin to wonder whether that is the Official Unionist view.

§ Mr. Peter Robinson
In view of the many advantages that the Secretary of State often tells us will flow from the existence of the Northern Ireland Assembly, does he accept that there would be advantage to others apart from the indigenous political parties in taking part in the election, and that the British Labour and Conservative Parties should put forward candidates? As the Secretary of State has often also told us that he has adopted Northern Ireland, would he consider assessing his own standing in the community?

§ Mr. Prior
I might ask the hon. Gentleman in turn why he does not stand as a Labour or Conservative candidate.

§ Mr. Concannon
Is the Secretary of State aware that I, too, am pleased that he survived the harassment from behind him and the "Get Prior" brigade during the Bill's passage through the House? But much more disturbing is the relationship with the Government of Southern Ireland.

§ Sir John Biggs-Davison
Ask a question.

§ Mr. Concannon
If the hon. Gentleman will stop yapping like a little dog in a corner I shall get on.

§ Sir John Biggs-Davison
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. Is this not Question Time?

§ Mr. Speaker
The hon. Gentleman is right. The right hon. Gentleman must ask a question; he can wrap his views up within the question.

§ Mr. Concannon
That is right, Mr. Speaker, but comments from a sedentary position put one off, especially when it is the end of term.
I am perturbed by the worsening relationship—[Interruption.] I know that we have to spin out Question Time, as there are not many questions.
Is the Secretary of State aware that some of us are perturbed by the worsening relationship with the South, which is not only a political problem but may spill over and affect good government, security and other matters? Should not the fences be mended as quickly as possible, as there is a link between political and security matters?

§ Mr. Prior
I share a great deal of the right hon. Gentleman's anxiety about the worsening relationship between the United Kingdom and the Republic. I hope that we can cool the situation and restore equilibrium after the summer holidays. To continue in the present vein is not doing ourselves or the Republic any good.