Mr Eddie McGrady (South Down)

I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to make my maiden speech in a Northern Ireland debate. I also thank the Secretary of State and other hon. Members for the welcome that they have given me this afternoon.

The former right hon. Member for the South Down seat, Mr. Enoch Powell, said that the constituency that he represented was the most beautiful and that the people were the friendliest to be found. His words were magnanimous indeed, coming as they did immediately after a crushing personal result for the man who, if he were here still, would now be the Father of the House. While distancing myself from most of what my predecessor stood for, I take this opportunity to sympathise with him on a personal level and to pay tribute to him for his distingushed parliamentary career.

My own home town of Downpatrick in South Down holds the grave of St. Patrick, the missionary who brought the message of Christ to Ireland and the man who spread the gospel of peace among the Irish. It was from my constituency that Christianity and learning spread thoughout the length and breadth of Ireland and, in the fullness of time, cast its civilising influence over large tracts of western Europe. In the age of darkness, the religious establishments in the County of Down did much to maintain the enlightenment, learning and beliefs that so characterised the Celtic Christian era.

Today, however, instead of that enlightenment and peace, we endure the distress of mistrust, fear, hatred and violence that exists between the two communities, both of which claim to adhere to the ideals of Patrick. Yet each still has a genuine longing for peace, founded on a just settlement that guarantees the rights of all and does not threaten the traditions, culture and identities of any.

To sit in this Chamber and to be a Member of the Parliament that has played so pivotal a role in the affairs of Irish history and the relationships between the Irish and British peoples is to feel a deep sense of the echoes of the past. Over the years, many parliamentarians have sought to solve the Irish problem. It was in this House that the great Irish leaders, O'Connell and Parnell, pleaded my country's cause. It was in this House, too, that leaders such as Gladstone and Asquith—all of their time—brought forward proposals to heal the divisions of Ireland. All of them failed, but in their failure they left a reminder to those who come after them that there is an unfinished agenda and a challenge that has yet to he tackled.

My constituency has recently witnessed some of the most callous atrocities in the catalogue of suffering and pain that Northern Ireland has experienced over the past two decades. Indeed, the experience of my constituency sums up the task facing all of us in seeking to bring stability and peace to Northern Ireland. Two communities live side by side. The overwhelming majority of people in each community simply want to live their lives and bring up their families in decency and integrity. However, the divisions remain, and those divisions are deep. Such divisions, and the alienation that flows from them, are not and cannot be healed by rhetoric, threats or security measures alone. It took a long, long time for that simple reality to be grasped. If the problems could have been solved in such a way, they would have been solved long before our time.

It is not possible to legislate away animosities that have existed for centuries, but it is possible to create a framework in which animosities and the sense of grievance no longer have fertile soil in which to grow. For that to happen, our people need to have a sense of belonging in their community, a perception that their own identity is honoured and a belief that they have a stake in the future of their country.

I submit that the Anglo-Irish Agreement provides a framework in which to achieve those objectives and that it has offered a real sense of hope to the people of Northern Ireland for the first time in many years. It is true that many unionist communities still reject the agreement and what it symbolises, but many have yet to learn the lesson that a community can only be built upon reconciliation and by providing all our people with the sense that their aspirations are legitimate and are recognised within the structures of their society. Is that too much to ask? Is it too much to ask the leaders of the unionist community to recognise that no one seeks to take away their rights or the rights of the people who they represent? Is it too much to ask them to sit down with us, with open minds and hearts, and talk about the way forward for all of us?

Over the years, my party has sought to achieve a framework involving the two islands of Britain and Ireland as well as the two communities within Northern Ireland. We believe that that is the only way in which to achieve real stability and peace in our country. We believe in the coming together, one day, of all Irish people. We have a right to that aspiration and goal, just as the unionist community has a right to its aspirations and beliefs, its sense of security and identity. Those rights are not mutually exclusive. The Anglo-Irish Agreement seeks to provide a framework in which neither community loses anything, but both have their traditions and rights enhanced.

We in Northern Ireland stand at a unique moment in the saga of Irish history. We now have a framework to take us out of the prison of that history. The framework was constructed and endorsed by this very House in 1985. However, we must overcome the tendency to repeat our tragic past and all the suffering that has gone with it. The choice lies between clambering along the difficult road of hope and taking a free ride down into the depths of despair.

South Down is, indeed, a beautiful place, but beneath that beauty and the innate friendliness of its people there lies a disturbing degree of neglect and need. Thirteen years of direct rule have not led to any great solutions of our problems. Indeed the economic problems and social deprivation of South Down have been intensified and exacerbated during those years of direct rule. Worse still, people see no prospect of an improvement in their position in the immediate future, unless the Government take urgent and remedial action.

On this occasion, it is only possible to touch briefly on certain aspects of direct rule as it affects South Down and the other constituencies of Northern Ireland. First, I am concerned about the unequal distribution of resources, which has adversely affected my constituency. I refer to the lack of expenditure on adequate infrastructures and the lack of industrial development or the encouragement of new industries to be sited in the constituency, particularly in the areas of highest unemployment. Indeed, it would appear that a new Pale is being created around the shores of Belfast Lough, as a Pale was once created around Dublin city, from the 12th century to the 16th century.

I am greatly disappointed that stronger action has not been taken to enforce equality of opportunity in the employment that does exist or to ensure that discrimination is immediately and effectively penalised in every way. I regret to say that I refer to discrimination not only in private industry but in Government and semi-Government establishments. It is a matter within the power of the administration of Northern Ireland, and I hope that a new, fresh and vigorous look will be taken at the problem to initiate immediate changes.

In general, my constituency has not fared well under direct rule, whatever aspect one wishes to examine. Indeed, it appears to be greatly disadvantaged. In the first debate that I attended in this House, the Prime Minister commented on falling unemployment figures. However, in a throw-away phrase she excluded Northern Ireland as it remained outside the national trend. Not only are there no jobs for thousands of people in my constituency; there is precious little hope for them either. They feel marginalised, forgotten and irrelevant. They have noted that the benefits of wealth creation have been denied them—that the bulk of spending in Northern Ireland has been centred on areas apart from theirs. Surely a task of economic policy must be to distribute resources where they are most needed and to provide outlets for people's talents. I hope that my work in this House will be strenuously devoted to making that a reality and to meeting the needs of my constituents.

The base industry in South Down is agriculture. It may surprise many hon. Members to learn that the entire constituency is designated as a less-favoured area under the EEC regulations; how disappointing it was to us, therefore—and particularly to small farmers—that agreement was not reached at Brussels last week. The changes have been too little, and the damning fact is that farm incomes in Northern Ireland—I say this with particular reference to South Down—are running at only 60 per cent. of the average for the past nine years. This dramatic collapse of incomes in our base industry is all the more keenly felt in the small farm areas that dominate South Down.

I have noticed how often one social disadvantage leads inexorably to the creation of another. I know that many hon. Members share my concern that those who have no jobs or who earn very low incomes should not be further isolated and deprived by cuts in the social welfare programme. They find themselves faced with a double-edged sword, which, on the one hand, denies them the means by which to support themselves and raise their families and, on the other, chops away the benefits that could help them enjoy even a basic quality of life. We must treat the causes and cushion the effects of unemployment with equal force.

Similarly, I am alarmed at what is happening to our health services. The mood for centralisation has become a runaway vehicle. We are faced with the threat of the closure of an acute hospital in the north of the constituency for reasons that have nothing whatever to do with the medical needs of the area. Our hospital is an integral and precious part of our lives, and to witness closure would be to contemplate medical murder for those patients whose future depends on immediate skilled help. We do not want the closure of a hospital but reinvestment of the resources that have already been taken away from it.

However, a more subtle danger that assails part of my constituency comes directly from this side of the water. It is the British Nuclear Fuels reprocessing plant at Sellafield. Today I voice the urgent concern of the people who live on the South Down coastland, which is directly opposite the Cumbrian site. I know that our concern is no less than that felt on this side of the Irish sea. In my constituency, we have a high incidence of leukaemia and cancer-related deaths, and we believe sincerely that the plant and the wastes that it discharges into the Irish sea have a significant bearing on the statistics. To put it bluntly, we suffer the ill-effects of the nuclear industry without having any of its so-called benefits, either in national wealth or in job provision.

I welcome last week's announcement by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. to build a multi-million-pound treatment plant to remove some radioactive material from the waste being discharged into the Irish sea, but I believe that that announcement is a de facto admission that the current levels of radioactive discharge into the Irish sea are harmful to the public. The partial clean-up has been brought about, not by the concern of the industry, but by a forceful and vigorous outcry against the sinister pollution which is being pumped daily into the Irish sea. It is my ambition to see that discharge totally stopped and, in the fullness of time, the Sellafield project, which was found so wanting in many aspects by an all-party Committee of the House, closed for ever.

On those issues, I sought a mandate from the people of South Down to represent them in Parliament and to fight for their concerns, and that is what I shall do. I appeal to all Members from the different parties who were elected in Northern Ireland to join together to try to bring peace and harmony to Northern Ireland, which will eventually lead to the better quality of life which we all so earnestly desire. We can do it jointly by trying to ease the worst effects of unemployment, poverty and deprivation. We can do it by coining together to create structures that would allow both communities to live in peace with each other and with a sense of mutual belonging. That is not an impossible goal. That is not an unrealistic aspiration.

We have all spent too long cursing the darkness, regretting the lost opportunities, and rejecting the possibility of future progress. Let us now work together for all the people of Northern Ireland so that we can build those bridges of healing and reconciliation. For too long, too many have slept in the wounds of others. We have a chance to work together in the interests of all our people. It is in that spirit that I intend to represent my constituents of South Down.

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