of Government spending in Northern Ireland. Melchett increased teacher numbers to give the best pupil/teacher ratio in the UK, modernised provision for the mentally ill, and saw Northern Ireland provided with world class sporting facilities. He was responsible for the successful passage of a bill making it possible to set up integrated (non-sectarian) schools. In his book Minority Verdict – Experiences of a Catholic Public Servant, Maurice Hayes, the most senior Roman Catholic civil servant in Northern Ireland, spoke very highly about working with Melchett: [He] "did not have everything spelled-out or interpreted for him. More important, he related to the young people around, he was mobile, accessible, and very attractive to large numbers of people. He also had a lot of courage and fighting for issues that did not fall within his brief, which involved some aspect of human rights or discrimination or criminal justice." One such issue was a case in which Melchett helped to secure a pardon for a young girl who had been convicted and imprisoned for killing her father, who had sexually abused and assaulted the girl's mother and turned his attentions on her younger sister. In his book, Hayes also said: "Melchett chafed at the constraints that were put on him in the name of security or convention and on his ability to travel to any part of Northern Ireland. He went out as often as he could and on whatever pretext to what were regarded 'difficult areas' – generally places that no minister had ever visited before, or any representative of government more exalted or benign than a policeman or a summons server – and found the people always glad to see him." After Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 election, Melchett served on the Opposition Front Bench in the House of Lords from 1979 to 1981, covering the environment and wildlife, and leading for the Opposition on the Wildlife and Countryside Bill, which became an Act in 1981. The bill faced around 1200 amendments at the Committee stage in the Lords, said to be more than any other Bill, many moved by Melchett. After amendments, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 introduced proper protection for key wildlife sites (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) and additional protection for numerous species, including (controversially) bats, and Melchett's personal favourite, protection from shooting for the Curlew, insisted on by the Lords after initial protection introduced in the