Mr Harold McCusker: I hope that my hon. Friends will listen to my comments. I do not believe that Northern Ireland has survived and prospered for 300 years by its people being beggars, and I do not think that we shall go into the future improving our situation by making beggars of ourselves. I say that as one who comes from a background where we were not flush. We had to make good with the resources available....
Mr Harold McCusker: We are talking not about gardens but about other environmental amenities, such as shrubs which become nesting places for rats, and attract glue-sniffers and rubbish. They place an even greater degree of expenditure on the local authority and Housing Executive in maintenance costs. By all means give people a front or rear garden, but stop cluttering up the environment with all these other...
Mr Harold McCusker: Can the Secretary of State tell us of another country in the world where the Government allow their citizens so little protection while they wait for their turn to be murdered? I cite Sergeant Hillen of the UDR. Everyone in Northern Ireland, including the Government, knew that he would be murdered, but nothing was done to prevent it.
Mr Harold McCusker: asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he has anything to add to his initial response to the report of the New Ireland Forum.
Mr Harold McCusker: Why should the Secretary of State or I take the report of the New Ireland forum seriously when none of its authors now agrees about the contents, when the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic and the Leader of the Opposition there disagree publicly about it, when the Leader of the Opposition in the Irish Republic has sacked one of his front benchers because he disagrees with him, and when the...
Mr Harold McCusker: As the Minister said, this is a short order, but it makes two important decisions about the necessary steps to secure the future of the gas industry in Northern Ireland. Article 3 deals with pipeline construction. Article 4 deals with the finances necessary for future organisation and development of the industry. I shall make a few comments on the latter article first, and impress on the...
Mr Harold McCusker: The Government intend to spend approximately £140 million over the next five to 10 years. The Northern Ireland Economic Council, whose opinion should not be discarded lightly, has said that it thinks that this is high-risk money, and that this might not be viable. Gas is being sold in Northern Ireland at three or four times the level at which it is sold in Great Britain. I can buy gas in...
Mr Harold McCusker: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would accept that many people in Northern Ireland are embarrassed by the frequency with which we are characterised as coming to Parliament with our begging bowl, always asking for something more. I am trying to make a case for the expenditure of a few pounds in a rational and, I hope, intelligent manner, and to say that it would be worth while spending a few...
Mr Harold McCusker: The Minister need go no further than the former chairman of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, who said on television a few weeks ago that he had no alternative but to build houses in areas where he knew there would be massive fraudulent abuse by the IRA and where rents would not be paid. He accepted that the allocation of those houses would not even be in the hands of his administrators.
Mr Harold McCusker: rose—
Mr Harold McCusker: What the hon. Gentleman says emphasises the importance of the interdependence, on the island of Ireland, of the agriculture industries of the Republic and of Northern Ireland. He has made my point even more forcefully.
Mr Harold McCusker: In part II, Class III, of the order we see that almost £40 million is intended to be spent during the next year on energy. Reference has been made to the consequences of very high energy costs to the people of Northern Ireland. It is sad to note that of that £40 million, £30 million will be spent on subsidies to keep electricity tariffs in line with the highest tariffs on the mainland....
Mr Harold McCusker: The industry is probably now more concerned about the damage that has been done to its image in the past two years by a variety of people. It is trying to project an image which will encourage people to keep their existing gas appliances and, when the time comes, gladly to accept the new form of natural gas which is to be supplied. We cannot say that we are setting ourselves up to be held to...
Mr Harold McCusker: The Minister has told me that there are no plans to provide dual carriageway in the next five years. The road has been used for the past two or three years but it is now suggested that it will be another five years before the work is completed. I think that that is unlikely. I am tempted to ask the Department of the Environment why it makes plans so far into the future on such a scheme. In...
Mr Harold McCusker: There are several categories. The hardest hit has been that to which I have referred, and only a few families are involved. There has been no exchange of money. Their circumstances today are precisely what they were in 1966 except that their farms and their homes have degenerated during that period. Consideration should be given to the other categories but that category should be dealt with...
Mr Harold McCusker: I welcome what the Minister has said. As it is possible for an enterprise zone to be established on a number of sites, I hope that eventually we may be able to do that in Northern Ireland. Reference has been made to education. After constitutional and security matters, education has probably given most concern to the people of Northern Ireland in recent years. I do not want to go over ground...
Mr Harold McCusker: Does my hon. Friend accept that those people do not contribute to the public debt either in terms of rent arrears or heating costs, to which my right hon. Friend the Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell) referred?
Mr Harold McCusker: All pnvately owned.
Mr Harold McCusker: Does the hon. Gentleman agree that a cheaper way to allow Northern Ireland to benefit from nuclear-generated electricity would be to construct a North channel electricity inter-connector?
Mr Harold McCusker: Is Harland and Wolff of Belfast on schedule for a successful completion of the contract which it was awarded for the Falklands dockyard?
