Assembly (Hansard, 22 March 1984)

§ 4. Mr. Andrew MacKay
asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a further statement on the future of the Assembly.

§ Mr. Prior
The future of the Assembly will be determined by the Members elected to it. The Assembly offers a framework in which those elected representatives can pursue the interests of the people of Northern Ireland, but it cannot be sustained idefinitely if the majority of them continue to refuse to take part.

§ Mr. MacKay
Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to scotch the rumour of an option of joint sovereignty in Northern Ireland? Will he confirm that the Government believe this to be a non-starter?

§ Mr. Prior
The Government remain committed to the principle of self-determination, which was given statutory effect in the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The results of the Assembly election and the general election demonstrate that a majority of voters favour the maintenance of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.

§ Mr. Molyneaux
Will the Secretary of State share with the House the views that he did not feel he ought to divulge to American journalists for fear that Unionists would—I use his terms—jump over the wall?

§ Mr. Prior
Many things make Unionists jump over the wall.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
Will my right hon. Friend stick to his policy of moving more Government decision-making to Ulster and the Assembly? Is it not desirable to have a high degree of local autonomy and control? Will my right hon. Friend go further and accept that the logical outcome of such a process might be an independent Ulster—a solution favoured by some hon. Members?

§ Mr. Prior
I think that there is a great deal to be said for more devolved government in Northern Ireland, but it would have to be on the basis that this is acceptable to the community as a whole.

§ Mr. Flannery
Is it not a fact that the minority community will take no part in this Assembly because it distrusts the Assembly and knows that it will be defeated continually by the Unionists? Is it not also a fact that the All Ireland Forum does not have the Northern Ireland Unionists in it for the same reason? Even though the other side is not represented in each of those bodies, should we still not examine with some care, and possibly in a constructive way, what is said in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and in the Forum in Southern Ireland?

§ Mr. Prior
Yes, Sir; certainly both.

§ Mr. Peter Robinson
Are there members of the religious minority in the Assembly at present? Have not the Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, through constructive work there, confounded the critics of the Assembly? Does the Secretary of State welcome the fact that next week it will be having its 100th sitting?

§ Mr. Prior
Yes, I think that the Assembly has done a great deal of very useful work, and I warmly applaud the part taken in it by many Assemblymen. I confirm that members of the minority community are playing an active part. I just wish that there were more.