Criminal Damage (Compensation) (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Order 2009

My Lords, I, too, thank the Lord President for introducing the order. Unlike the instrument we discussed earlier, this order is not so much a mark of Northern Ireland’s progress towards normalisation but of the phases of disruption during that progress. The spike in attacks on, for example, Orange halls, is unfortunately part of the context of this order. In the case of the previous statutory instrument, the trend was towards normalisation. On the tendency of the people of Northern Ireland to claim three times more than citizens in the rest of the United Kingdom for criminal injury, I am informed that not so long ago they claimed six times more than the citizens of the rest of the United Kingdom, so even there the trend is towards normalisation. In this case, however, we are dealing with something different: the remaining abnormality of the Northern Irish situation. The steps that the Government have taken to tackle the situation of isolated community halls and the context created by the attacks on some of them are entirely wise and reasonable. I have only one difficulty. The Lord President referred to the fact that the GAA and the SDLP disagreed with aspects of this proposal. My essential difficulty lies not in any disagreement with the Government; the case can be made that the GAA is a very wealthy organisation, is perhaps more akin to some of the wealthier rugby clubs in Northern Ireland and is therefore not like the essentially penniless organisations that the Government are trying to help tonight. My difficulty is that, although I agree with the Government, I am uneasy that there is no one in this House to put the other case. It brings home to us again the problem of the absence of representation from the nationalist community in Northern Ireland. That, to some degree, is the product of a decision by the political representatives of that community, but does the Lord President share my unease on that point?