Mr Harold McCusker: In a debate on employment an hon. Member, referring to the statistics which had just been published, said: The mid-July figure is 514,000…. If the figure for Northern Ireland of 36,000 is added, the total is 550,000, which is the highest figure since the July, 1940 … The percentage for the country is 2·2. For Northern Ireland it is 7·1 per cent., a scandalously high level which should...
Mr Harold McCusker: The people of Northern Ireland are watching 25 years of industrial achievement crumbling before their eyes. Graigavon and Antrim, new town developments based on industrial expansion, have become bad dreams. We cannot run away from it. I was born in a traditional textile town, like many hon. Members opposite, where when one got up in the morning one could tell the time by the tone of...
Mr Harold McCusker: I appreciate that, but I wish that the Minister would not make it sound as though he was handing it out to a coconut colony and, with it, hoping to buy the loyalty of the people in Northern Ireland and to persuade them to accept the political consequences that he wishes to inflict upon them. Thirty years after the war, Northern Ireland's engineering industry must now rely again on the...
Mr Harold McCusker: We believe that the Department of Commerce must again go after jobs and must again sell Northern Ireland, no matter how unattractive that may be to some Ministers on the Treasury Bench.
Mr Harold McCusker: I do not deny that. It will not be easy. But we cannot proclaim our instability, for which we are responsible frequently, and then try to tell people that the situation is quite the reverse. It would be better for the Minister, with the Department of Commerce, to mount a positive, imaginative campaign to bring more jobs to Northern Ireland than to preside over the last relics of the...
Mr Harold McCusker: Will the Minister of State accept that my colleagues and I wish to be associated with the expressions of sympathy to the relatives of the deceased men? Will he also note that we wish to record our admiration and gratitude to all the members of the security forces in Northern Ireland, particularly to the Royal Scots, for the difficult and dangerous job they have undertaken in South Armagh in...
Mr Harold McCusker: It would be wrong if the House adjourned and we went away without first discussing the security situation in Northern Ireland in general and in my constituency in particular, not only because it is still one of the major problems confronting the House and because the situation is deteriorating, but because within days some people in Northern Ireland will be celebrating again the 1916...
Mr Harold McCusker: indicated assent.
Mr Harold McCusker: asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people have been killed as a result of terrorist activity in County Armagh since 1st January 1976.
Mr Harold McCusker: In view of the appalling statistics, which indicate that more than a quarter of the people murdered in Northern Ireland have been killed in my constituency, does the Secretary of State still consider that County Armagh is a special emergency area, as defined by the Prime Minister on 12th January? Can he give us a report on the effectiveness or otherwise of the seven steps announced on that...
Mr Harold McCusker: On what basis is the hon. Gentleman able to make those comments? Does he not agree that for any meaningful comment to be made on those figures we need equivalent figures for other peripheral deprived regions? Does he have those figures?
Mr Harold McCusker: Will the Minister not agree that if the present conflict is not to degenerate into further acts of retaliation, the frustration of the law-abiding community must be channelled into positive law-abiding anti-terrorist activity? Will the Minister reconsider some of the points made by the hon. Member for Abingdon (Mr. Neave)? Will the Minister agree that it does not matter whether he, this House...
Mr Harold McCusker: I am at a loss to know to whom I should address my remarks, as the Minister I thought was responsible for answering this debate does not appear to be on the Government Front Bench. I see, however, that another Minister is present. A few weeks ago the second graduation ceremony for students of the Open University in Northern Ireland took place in Belfast. Of the 192 graduates, 18 were honours...
Mr Harold McCusker: The last comment of the hon. Member for Down, North (Mr. Kilfedder) was typical of the nonsense which attaches to debates on legislation of this sort. Both the hon. Member and the hon. Member for Belfast, West (Mr. Fitt) in one breath talked about the second-class nature and down-trodden lives of Irish women and in the next admitted their worth and the part they have played throughout Irish...
Mr Harold McCusker: If the hon. Member for Down, North would sample family life, he might be better equipped to comment on these issues.
Mr Harold McCusker: What interests me about the Order is that it sets up what will be known as an Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland which will have a membership of between six and 12, plus associated staff. We already have in Northern Ireland a Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, with a membership of about eight, with a staff. We are shortly to have a Fair Employment Agency which will...
Mr Harold McCusker: As a Minister in a Labour Government, is not the hon. Member ashamed of these figures, which are the worst unemployment levels since Northern Ireland was established? What does he intend to do to reduce them?
Mr Harold McCusker: Does the Minister accept that the administration and management of these recreational facilities are among the very few responsibilities left to councils in Northern Ireland? Does he also accept that how they use them is their responsibility, and that of the citizens of their boroughs?
Mr Harold McCusker: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that compensation has been awarded to four children under the age of 2 years for nervous shock? How does one assess nervous shock in a child under the age of 2?
Mr Harold McCusker: asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will consider the establishment of a specialist full-time anti-terrorist unit recruited principally from the ranks of the UDR and RUC.
