My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 21, which stands in my name and the names of the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Eames, and the noble Lords, Lord Cormack and Lord Bruce. I am grateful for their support.
I shall first speak briefly about the context which has dominated this debate. In 2007, when we negotiated the deal that brought Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness
into power together, I said that I was the last direct-rule Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. I now very much fear that that was wrong and that we are hurtling towards direct rule. I fear that greatly because the current situation has shown how difficult it is to get the Assembly up and running with a functioning Executive once it has been suspended. With direct rule, that becomes doubly difficult. I say to my friends in the DUP—and they are my friends, because I worked very closely with them as Secretary of State and have done so since—that I hope that they are taking note of what is happening in de facto parliamentary direct rule. A lot of things that are coming through are things they are not happy about. That is the consequence of the Assembly being suspended. It is not only one party—Sinn Féin—that is at fault. It is not only one party. Yes, it is at fault, and it is being uncompromising on some issues and details—but, I am afraid, so are my friends in the DUP. This is not just one party blocking the whole thing. I think there should be honesty about that. The consequences are here to be seen in issues that the DUP is deeply unhappy about.
In passing, I will say that, once again in the debates on this Bill, we are seeing the absence of a nationalist political voice in this House. Half the community does not have a political voice in your Lordships’ House. There is no modern Gerry Fitt, as it were. I know he was criticised by many of his followers for taking his seat here, but it was an important voice to hear. I know that will be agreed by unionist Members. I hope that, in considering future appointments to this House, the Government, perhaps in consultation with the independent Appointments Commission, will take note of that, because this cannot continue—especially if direct rule comes, as I very much fear it might.
I recognise that, as drafted, Amendment 21 is likely to require a money resolution in the House of Commons—or at least an amendment on Report to incorporate funding from the Northern Ireland Consolidated Fund, which I hope the Government will agree to. I have spoken many times in your Lordships’ House on the urgent need to provide a pension for those who were severely injured through no fault of their own—I repeat, “through no fault of their own”, which is written into the text—as a result of Troubles-related incidents.
I, and I know those who have been campaigning, especially in the WAVE Trauma Centre, which I commend, for the pension for nearly a decade, have been greatly heartened and encouraged by the wide cross-party support in this House for this proposal: from the former Secretaries of State the noble Lord, Lord King, and my noble friends Lord Reid and Lord Murphy; from former Victims’ Ministers who served in Northern Ireland, my noble friends Lord Browne and Lady Smith of Basildon; from the distinguished former chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Cormack; from the noble Baroness, Lady Altman; from the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, for the Liberal Democrats; and, from the Cross Benches, from the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Eames, the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, and the noble Lord, Lord Bew. I am also grateful to the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Duncan, who, to use a colloquialism, gets it. I thank him for the detailed conversations we
have had on this, as well as for his support of and direct engagement with the severely injured victims. It has been much appreciated.
Now is the time for action. I urge the Government not to divide the House but to accept this amendment with not only a firm and binding commitment to legislate but with the timeframe attached to other measures coming from the other place and set out in my amendment. The date for this will be 21 October 2019, unless an Executive has been formed in Northern Ireland by then.
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There are few Northern Ireland legacy issues that come before us that do not have some element of contention, and this is no exception. The toxic issue, which prevented this measure being passed at Stormont years ago when the Assembly and the Executive were functioning, was who would qualify for this pension. Will the few republicans or loyalists who were injured by their own hand—for example, when planting a bomb that exploded prematurely—benefit from a pension for the severely injured?
Of course, it is for the Government to frame the details of the legislation by regulation. However, I want to make it absolutely clear, as is explicitly set out in my amendment, that I am proposing and asking for the support of this House for a pension for those severely injured through no fault of their own. I can think of few more perverse cruelties than for a widow who lost her husband in a terrorist incident, received barely enough compensation to bury him and had to raise a family in the most difficult financial circumstances, to discover that the person who planted that bomb—who survived but was injured—was to receive a special pension from the state 30 or 40 years later. That would be shocking.
I am well aware of the definition of “victim” set out in the 2006 order. This was raised in the other place. It was passed when I was Secretary of State. One of the aims of that order was to ensure that everyone impacted by the Troubles would have access to the services that they and their families would need, regardless of their circumstances. We provide those services through the National Health Service and the Victims and Survivors Service, and we will do through a mental trauma service in the future. That is as it should be. We are a civilised society and we do not turn people away from services.
However, this pension is a very different matter. It is not a service but a recognition of the great harm done to men and women through no fault of their own. To those who repeatedly told me when I was Secretary of State that there must not be a hierarchy of victims, I say: there already is. Those who had their lives catastrophically and permanently damaged through no fault of their own by the actions of others are right at the bottom of that category—that ladder, as it were.
They are not asking for much—around £150 weekly, backdated to the all-party Stormont House agreement of 23 December 2014 covering such matters. It would cost a few million pounds annually, which is peanuts in terms of the total Northern Ireland budget.
I will remind your Lordships of the harrowing story of one such severely injured victim. Peter was shot in 1979—when he was 26 years old—by a loyalist gunman who came to the wrong address. His father arrived at the scene, thought his son Peter had been killed and dropped dead on the spot from a massive heart attack. Peter has been wheelchair bound ever since and survives on benefits. He is now aged 67. He had to watch his childhood sweetheart—the love of his life—drink herself to death by the age of 51 because she opened the door to the gunman and never forgave herself.
He was asked what difference a modest pension would make to his life. He said: “I could get the grass cut. I could replace a slate on the roof. I could get someone in for a bit of extra cleaning. That would make all the difference in the world to me”. We can help Peter and the relatively small number of others who are suffering so much. If that cannot or will not be done by the Assembly and Executive in Northern Ireland for whatever reason, we must do it here—and without delay.
I urge the Minister to accept this amendment, or at least by Wednesday, on Report, to bring a technically improved version. I am happy to agree it if at all possible, provided that we deliver this pension and deliver it soon, as every month that passes means that some of the severely injured could pass, too. Stormont, Parliament and the Government have prevaricated on this for far too long. We must act now, at long last.