§ Mr. Duffyasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what will happen to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention at the end of its initial span.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe Northern Ireland Act 1974 provides that the Convention shall be dissolved on the date on which its final report is laid before Parliament, or six months after the date of its first meeting—that is 8th November 1975—whichever is the earlier. But the Act also empowers me to make an order postponing the dissolution of the Convention for up to three months at a time.
As I told the House on 26th June—[Vol. 894, col. 850]—the Government would sympathetically consider extending the Convention's initial term.