Northern Ireland Assembly Members Bill [HL]

I first apologise to the Committee for the unintentional interruption from my mobile phone a few moments ago. I support the amendment, in so far as I have experienced the stresses of double-jobbing. It was necessary for me to be a member of the Northern Ireland Forum during the negotiations to establish an Assembly. At the same time, I was a Member of this House. It was a hideous time and I hope it can be noted—not as an example but as a practicality—that I did not find it possible to become a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly when it was established. I knew exactly where my responsibilities lay. That has been the position of my party for some considerable time. It is absolutely wrong that we should create virtually millionaires out of the political process. We know that we are here to serve the people who elect us. It is wrong—though I can understand that it has happened—that some politicians in Northern Ireland almost become the leaders of the very organisations that we have opposed. Those organisations have been involved in intimidation and power-brokering in Northern Ireland. That is not what the political arena is about. Hence, it is our obligation to the new and tender plant that is the Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure, first, that people who are elected are able to do the job properly and without distraction and, secondly, that there is an opportunity for the ordinary people who serve the public—we have many of them in Northern Ireland who are not and have never been elected—to contribute, if there is an opening or way through this powerful and tight cabal. I am not opposed to the party system but this cabal is currently part of the party system in Northern Ireland. If you have lived all your life through the Troubles, you will know the difficulties of establishing something that will appeal to the entire community, serve the entire community and create confidence within the entire community, where one tradition is still distrustful of the other. We cannot have people elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly who are not totally dedicated to those ends. For that reason, I fully support—as I hope the Government will—the concept of one man or woman, one job.