Lord Dodds of Duncairn (DUP)

My Lords, I warmly welcome the way in which the Minister introduced her remarks by referencing the sacrifices made by members of the security forces, who suffered grievous losses to protect everybody in Northern Ireland. That is often forgotten in the perverted twisting of history that is now going on relentlessly in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. I welcome the ruling of the Supreme Court in seeking to restrict the application of EU law as far as human rights in Northern Ireland are concerned, but she will be aware that the quangos that were mentioned earlier have spent a large amount of money seeking to expand the application of Article 2 in ways that are erroneous and wrong. That has undermined public confidence in those quangos in both communities. That must be central to the Belfast agreement and its application, something that the Government need to be very aware of. Can the Minister confirm that Article 2 still has a direct effect in terms of the application of the law in certain circumstances? Will she elaborate on what those may be? Finally, if she looks at the legacy legislation, can she confirm what representations her Government have made to the Irish Government—who have had a de facto amnesty for decades against IRA and other terrorists who used their country as a safe haven during the Troubles, and also in relation to refusing to co-operate with the ICRIR—about their continuing case in the international courts against the United Kingdom? The Irish Government refuse to co-operate with the commission; the noble Lord, Lord Caine, has outlined and spoken of this and talked about the need for more resources. The Irish Government refuse to co-operate. Has that been called out by the Government?