§ Lord Williams of MostynMy Lords, finally, I beg to move the sixth Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
Moved, That the draft order be referred to the Northern Ireland Orders Grand Committee.—(Lord Williams of Mostyn.)
Lord RentonMy Lords, bearing in mind that there is no Northern Ireland Assembly now, and that the budget of Northern Ireland deeply affects the lives of all the people there, is there no other way in which that budget can be approved by the Parliament of the United Kingdom except merely by our being asked to approve an order which does not enable the budget to be altered in any way?
§ Lord Williams of MostynMy Lords, I think that the noble Lord has mistaken the nature of the orders that I have been moving. On 16th December, a number of your Lordships, including the noble Lords, Lord Glentoran and Lord Smith of Clifton, raised the perfectly reasonable point that we needed a more expansive opportunity to discuss these orders for the reasons that the noble Lord, Lord Renton, gave. Accordingly, we have agreed—with remarkable speed, I think—to set up a new procedure, which is the Northern Ireland Orders Grand Committee procedure, which will give us our opportunity to discuss these orders. I stress that they then come back to the House for approval.
Lord RentonMy Lords, I thank the noble and learned Lord for that explanation. It will enable noble Lords to look forward to the occasion, even though it is mainly a responsibility of another place.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.