Financial Services Bill

The Minister has said that he wants to be sympathetic and helpful, and of course that is a euphemism for "No," or "Not now." However, I want to pick up on a couple of the points that he made. He said that the Northern Ireland Executive would have to indicate its approval before any proposal could be implemented, yet the hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson), whose name appears on the new clause, is Northern Ireland's Minister of Finance and Personnel. When he was agreeing with me and saying he wanted to support the new clause, he told me so in the company of the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, who is in the responsible Department, so there seems to be support and will at that level. I am sure that the Minister is right to suggest that people in that Department are very conscious that putting in place the detailed arrangements—for setting out the precise interface between registration and regulation, and for ensuring that the relevant secondary legislation and other instruments are appropriate and fully in line with the legal requirements in Northern Ireland—may take some time. However, I stress that there is a compelling consensus on the need to establish, as both a principle and a fact, that the position in respect of primary legislation has changed. That would at least give some force and pace to the need to resolve and clarify these other issues. People have waited for this for a long time. Everyone has said they agree that the change should happen, but an element of urgency should have been added after all that we learned from the financial crisis and the other questions that arose in respect of deposit guarantee protection and so on. Yet still it appears that the proposal will get a long finger, and that we will be told to look for some other legislation that would be appropriate. It would help if the Minister could give us a wee bit more of an indication that a signal from the Executive and the Assembly would be well received. For instance, the Assembly Committee last week again endorsed this new clause, and made a point of saying so specifically. It engaged the Department on that basis, and it has encouraged us to pursue the new clause in this debate, so there would be no question of delay in any legislative consent motion. If we got the necessary motions through the Assembly, I hope that the Minister would be able to tell us that we were on a real mission and that we would not have to wait for a further Bill. If that were to happen, I would certainly work with colleagues, and with him, to try to take forward an issue that is a huge frustration for the many members of credit unions.