Mr. John McCallister:

I have always viewed the Bill as a great way of bringing parties to negotiations.

They have completed A Fresh Start. The Bill has left committee and it must come out of Committee Stage in late January. I hope to meet representatives of most of the parties on Monday. I will be with the committee again on Tuesday. There is stuff I know now I will not get and I will change it. We have been working with the drafter in the Bills office to get amendments. The committee process has been excellent in that we have engaged academics from North and South, political parties and a range of civic society commenting on the Bill and how we get that difference. It is about sticking with a consociational type of government and language. I accept that I will probably have to make amendments to make sure we stay within that. It certainly puts it on the agenda. I want to keep that conversation going.

I am getting a picture now of where most of the parties are on it. Traditionally, nationalism as a whole has been the most nervous about any changes that the Bill would bring. That is why I am keen to meet Mr. Colum Eastwood and, I hope, Mr. Raymond McCartney, on Monday to go through and see what bits we need to examine and change. We need to see if language can be altered and what we can do to reassure people. For some parties, the big debate is probably about having legislation and just changing standing orders. My answer is that legislation gives security that just changing standing orders does not. Some criticism would be that the executive has too much control over the legislature and that is the debate to be had. Some are pushing for this to be done through standing orders but legislation is important. It is crucial to have those standing orders based in legislation. The other advantage of legislation is that it lets parties know what they are signing up to, what was agreed and what is in the Bill. This is what came out the other end. The other advantage is that in tabling a Bill, at some point people must put up their hands, saying "Yes" or "No" for it.

In promising to bring standing orders or change something, we are never quite sure when that is going to happen. Effectively, we have debated and talked about the need for an Opposition right from when the Assembly was founded in 1998. We have always found a reason to say the question is for another day. The Bill forces people to act. As with all legislation, and even if I brought it as a Government Minister, I will not get everything I want in the Bill. It is a question of what we can do or agree to improve scrutiny in government and improve the delivery of that government. That is all for the good. We are plagued with voter apathy and falling voter turnout because they see the Assembly and Executive as dysfunctional and not having delivered anything. That is a major danger for people who support the Good Friday Agreement and all that has been achieved in the past 20 years.