Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee (Non-Afl)

It is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness. I agree with all that she had to say in relation to the issues in the report. I am delighted to speak to this report as a member of the scrutiny committee. I declare my interests, in particular as chair of InterTrade UK and of Boyce Precision Engineering, and as a member of Co-operation Ireland. I thank the chair, the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, for the way in which he set out the detail of the report and I echo his thanks to our wonderful committee staff. I want to concentrate on the action taken to mitigate the democratic deficit for Northern Ireland and its people, given that, as we have heard, aspects of EU laws apply in Northern Ireland without the consent of parliamentarians either here or in Stormont. It is clear from the evidence that we took in our committee and indeed from reports of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee in another place that the arrangements set up to try and mitigate the democratic deficit have, to date, been insufficient. We can never truly deal with the issues arising from the Windsor Framework or the protocol until they are replaced with much more realistic and proportionate arrangements and agreements. Until that happens, we must try to make the mitigations as effective as they can be within the constraints set by these flawed agreements. When I was reflecting on the comments of the noble Lord the chair at the start of his speech around the Windsor Framework, it reminded me of the old joke: a tourist comes along a country road, sees a farmer hanging over a gate and asks for directions, and the farmer replies, “Well, I wouldn’t start from here”. I think that is certainly the feeling of a lot of us but we have to start from here because that is what we have at the moment.