Orders of the Day — Northern Ireland Constitution (Amendment) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Rhagfyr 1973.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr Patrick Duffy Mr Patrick Duffy , Sheffield, Attercliffe 12:00, 13 Rhagfyr 1973

Or the Republic, yes. I thought that the view of most hon. Members then present was that the Prime Minister dealt most convincingly with that allegation. I shall want to explore the theme of a united Ireland later in my remarks.

I want now to take up the central feature of last week's Sunningdale conference. I see the Sunningdale conference as a vital condition for today's amending measure. Therefore, I hope that the House will forgive me if I confine my remarks to this one matter.

I should like to enlarge on the praise that I offered the Prime Minister last Monday. Indeed, I should like to lavish much praise upon members of the Treasury Bench because I know how hard they have laboured for the outcome of the Sunningdale conference. I realise that I must be very careful—I hope that all hon. Members will be careful—to say nothing that might make more difficult the acceptance of the present proposals in any quarter in Northern Ireland.

On Monday I described the Sunningdale conference as historic and tremendous. The establishment of a Council of Ireland and setting the seal on the power-sharing arrangements with the North are undoubtedly potentially historic steps. Whether they will realise their potential, only time will reveal.

I have no doubt that those present at the Sunningdale conference were right to reach agreement, even at the price of leaving some questions unresolved. The most desirable possible outcome was a modest measure of harmonious agreement. It is a measure of the new spirit of compromise in Belfast that any kind of agreement was possible. It is an indication of the new outlook in Ireland, North and South, that agreement was, most notably, expressed on a Council of Ireland, and that it brought together two of its main architects, my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, West (Mr. Fitt) and Mr. Faulkner.

Moreover, the British Government declare that should the people of Northern Ireland indicate a wish to become part of a united Ireland they would support that wish. As my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, South (Mr. Merlyn Rees) has already observed, that represents a significant departure from previous declarations, which were to the effect that no British Government would stand in the way of such a development. Many people, North and South as well as here in Britain, would have preferred the British Government now to state that a united Ireland is in everyone's best interests. I can understand why the Westminster Government did not do so. But the more thoughtful Unionists must now know that this is the inarticulate premise from which all British Government policy-making on Ireland now proceeds.

To that extent, the hon. and gallant Member for Down, South is right. But it is the conditions that will attend that development that are more important than this acknowledgment and this agreement. The hon. and gallant Gentleman knows that. That is my complaint about his speech. The conditions have been spelled out repeatedly, and he must be aware of them. He should know that he may be doing not only the House and the Government that he supports but even his own constituents a disservice unless he spells out these conditions as well as making the other kind of allegations which he has made this afternoon and last Monday.