David Simpson (Upper Bann, DUP)

I congratulate Ms Butler on an excellent maiden speech. She and I have something in common. She mentioned that her predecessor was accosted on the streets. Mine also was accosted on the streets, but for different reasons, which we will not discuss today.

Coming from a working-class background and a small village just outside County Armagh I am humbled, honoured and proud to represent the people of Upper Bann. I come to the House as part of a greatly increased number of MPs from my party. In the 2001 election we won five seats; now we have nine. If making gains at elections is a sign of progress, an increase of 80 per cent. is a good day's work.

Upper Bann was created in 1983. I follow Mr. Harold McCusker and Mr. David Trimble, two very different men who did things their own different ways. For my part, I shall do things my way. However David Trimble was thought of back home, and whatever verdict the people of Northern Ireland ultimately delivered on him, I know that there are many here who held him in high esteem. [Hon. Members: "Hear, hear."] I can say of David Trimble that while we were at loggerheads for the past four years, when the declaration was made and I was announced as the winner, David Trimble, in his final act as a Member of Parliament and in his first act as a former Member of the House, behaved with dignity, and I have to applaud that. Although I suppose that he must think that me saying something complimentary about him is a bit like the hangman saying, "You have a lovely neck."

Upper Bann nestles right in the heart of Ulster and contains three of Northern Ireland's largest and most important towns—Banbridge, Lurgan and Portadown. Lurgan and Portadown make up the borough of Craigavon, named after Lord Craigavon, and I have the pleasure of being the mayor of that borough. Recent Government figures inform us that in two council areas that incorporate Upper Bann, unemployment is lower than both the national rate and that of Northern Ireland as a whole. Northern Ireland was once an employment blackspot, and it is to the great credit of local entrepreneurs and the many small businesses that we have emerged from a 35-year nightmare so well.

However, those figures hide some serious issues. The entire Northern Ireland economy competes in export markets against the low-cost manufacturing bases in eastern Europe and the far east, and business in Upper Bann today centres on retail, textiles, construction, pharmaceuticals, food companies, IT and electronics. Manufacturing jobs today have been lost in Upper Bann because of the recent or potential implications of rating revaluation in the Province. We have sought to encourage new high-technology jobs, promote development opportunities and build relationships across the business community.

Today we are debating education. Northern Ireland boasts one of the best education systems anywhere in the United Kingdom. Our educational achievement has always been one of the Province's key selling points. Almost two thirds of people living in Northern Ireland support academic selection, including teachers, parents and the majority of politicians. They value an education system where the doors of grammar schools are open to everyone, not just the rich, or only those whose parents were educated at grammar schools. The new direct rule Minister should set aside the ideas and rhetoric of her predecessor and work with politicians and the education sector to deliver a system that commands support right across the community.

The Democratic Unionist party has highlighted our concerns over proposed education cuts affecting local education and library boards. We recognise the difficulty that boards are experiencing living within the 5 per cent. budget, especially with expanding special needs provision. I will continue to fight for the retention of front-line services and vigorously pursue the issues of school meals, crossing patrols, classroom assistants and safety on school transport.

In my constituency, small rural schools are threatened with closure. Loughbrickland primary school outside Banbridge and Ardmore primary school outside Lurgan face closure, despite the pleas of parents and the clear need to retain them. I urge the Government to take their responsibilities and pledges to the people seriously.

Today we are also debating health, and Craigavon area hospital has struggled to accommodate the large number of new patients following the withdrawal of acute services from south Tyrone. The introduction next year of an extra 20 beds and a new protective elective ward is greatly welcomed, but the £11 million shortfall facing the Southern health board over the next two years must not compromise plans for a cardiac catherisation lab and a 32-bed admissions unit. There is a severe shortage of allied health professionals in the Southern health board, and we seek more speech and occupational therapists, particularly for children with special needs.

I am pleased that a new mental health Bill has finally been brought forward and I am also aware of the escalating problems of medical negligence and will take a close interest in the NHS redress Bill.

As for education and health in Northern Ireland, the overriding concern is to return these matters to the control of local elected politicians in a devolved Government. Some years ago, the story was told of a new Secretary of State—we are well used to new Secretaries of State in Northern Ireland—who on his arrival was given a security briefing by senior police and Army personnel. They showed him a map of Northern Ireland, just to make sure that he knew exactly where he was, and they set about giving him all the information about Northern Ireland in an afternoon. In the process, they explained the various shadings on the map to him. Parts of it were shaded orange, which they explained were predominantly loyalist or Unionist areas. "Golly," said the new Minister, in a good Ulster accent. Parts of it were shaded green, which they explained were predominantly nationalist or republican areas. "Well I never," said the Secretary of State. As they were about to finish, he stopped them and pointed at Lough Neagh and said, "Who are the blue chappies in the middle?" That is a true story.

Northern Ireland does not need any more of that inflicted on it. We currently have direct rule because of republicans and their failure to abandon terrorism and criminality. Democratic parties are held back and the entire Province is being punished because of their unwillingness to face reality. When I met the Prime Minister last week, I was heartened to hear that he seemed to be adopting a more realistic position in this regard. We will hold him to account on these solemn issues.

With due respect to hon. Members from every corner of the United Kingdom, Ulster people are the best, kindest and most resilient anywhere on the globe today, and I am deeply humbled to have been given the opportunity to represent them here, and deeply honoured to think that they have entrusted me to do so.

I want, if I may, to leave the House with a verse of scripture. I know that it is not very popular in today's society to quote scripture, but this verse is very poignant, and if everyone would attend to it, we would have a different country today. Chronicles II, chapter 7, verse 14 says:

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin"—

and the punch line is this—

"and will heal their land."

I look forward to that day and pray that with God's help we will see it.

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