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Budget (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

I join with other noble Lords in thanking the Minister for his presentation of what is a very complicated budget in a rather simplistic and acceptable manner, in simply summarising it and not going into the details, which I think would succeed in confusing almost everyone. He commenced by suggesting that it was unfortunate that the Northern Ireland Assembly was not functioning and he regretted that. As an endangered species myself, as a Member of this noble House but also an elected Member—a rare exception—in the Northern Ireland Assembly, I join with him in that expression of regret. But one must understand the reason for that situation, lest people get carried away that it is simply a matter of resurrecting the Northern Ireland Assembly. The reality is that on two occasions the Northern Ireland Assembly was resurrected on the understanding that there would be total decommissioning of terrorist firearms—illegal arms—in Northern Ireland. But, of course, once bitten, twice shy. That is not the situation today. The Independent Monitoring Commission has confirmed that Sinn Fein IRA—and Sinn Fein of course is the political wing of the IRA, as everyone has said, from the Prime Minister of southern Ireland downwards—has not decommissioned all its firearms and is involved in criminality. That is the bottom line. Surely, her Majesty’s Government are not suggesting that within the United Kingdom we should have a devolved system of government in which Ministers belong to an organisation which has not decommissioned all its firearms and which is still involved in criminality. I fail to see how those who are real democrats in Northern Ireland could in the foreseeable future join in any power-sharing executive with such people as Sinn Fein IRA, after reports from an independent body, among whose four members is a representative of the Republic of Ireland Government, saying that criminality is continuing. So, regrettably, direct rule continues and most legislation in Northern Ireland is by Order in Council in our national Parliament here in Westminster. But that system of government must not be abused by her Majesty’s Government. There is a form of political blackmail in Northern Ireland at the minute by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. I understand that the day-to-day government of Northern Ireland must continue, but major policy reforms are a different issue from the day-to-day government and administration of the Province. We are getting threats from her Majesty’s Government that they will continue with the reform of the rating system, with the reforms of water and sewerage, with the reform of local government against the advice of most political parties in Northern Ireland, and with the reform of the education system against the wishes of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland. In the Belfast Telegraph this week we see that 90 per cent of the people polled were against the proposed reforms of the education system in Northern Ireland. So we have a Government who are now blackmailing elected representatives in Northern Ireland and saying, ““You must agree to go into a government with people who are involved in criminality, with people who have not totally decommissioned or else we are going to introduce reforms in Northern Ireland which most people and most political parties do not want””. That is not democracy. Democracy is where a government will listen to and consult with the people and not override their wishes. Regrettably, that is not what is happening in Northern Ireland today. The noble Lord, Lord Laird, is an authority on many subjects and he has gone into them in considerable detail today. Once again he mentioned Waterways Ireland and north/south bodies. I congratulate him on the detail he went into, but I am not going to detain noble Lords as long as he did. I shall be quite brief. I want to go into more general issues. The first general issue that the public in Northern Ireland really need to know about is: what is the annual amount of subvention from London that goes to support the Northern Ireland Exchequer each year? If we lost that amount because Northern Ireland left the United Kingdom, in order to maintain the present standards of public expenditure in Northern Ireland, what would each person—and there are 4 million of them—in the Republic of Ireland have to send to Stormont each year? That is one of the most interesting figures, not only for people in Northern Ireland but also for people in the Republic. My guess—and I want the Minister to confirm it—is that each person in the Republic of Ireland would have to contribute £2,000 per year to support public expenditure in Northern Ireland at the same level that it is today. In other words, a family in Killaloo with four children would have to send up a cheque for £12,000 per year just to keep Northern Ireland going as it is. It is very important, if we are going to be realistic about the future of Northern Ireland, Ireland and the United Kingdom, that these simple figures are understood by everyone, irrespective of what party they belong to. So I seek that clarification. We have another issue, which started in Dublin and is now being promoted by certain personalities in Northern Ireland, that we should have an all-Ireland level of corporation tax for businesses. The rate is 12.5 per cent in the Republic and 30 per cent in the United Kingdom. I declare an interest because I am the owner of the largest newspaper company in Northern Ireland, but we also have six places in the Republic in the main newspaper group, so I know the advantages of corporation tax in the south of Ireland. Business fat cats will say that it is a great idea and lovely to pay just 12.5 per cent instead of 30 per cent. Former civil servants like Sir George Quigley are promoting this idea, which, as I say, was initiated from sources in Dublin, which I will not identify today because of the personalities involved. Can the Minister tell us what the difference in income would be for the Northern Ireland Exchequer if corporation tax was reduced to the 12.5 per cent level? How many millions less would Stormont have available to invest in Northern Ireland? Since the Government would not idly stand by—to use a phrase of the late Jack Lynch—I am quite sure that they would reduce public expenditure in Northern Ireland. So the reduction of corporation tax, which businesses would welcome, would therefore mean a reduction in public expenditure. That would mean less money for schools, roads, health and housing. Who would suffer? It would not be the big fat cats, it would be the ordinary men and women on the streets of Northern Ireland—Roman Catholic, Protestant, republican and unionist. The ordinary people would lose out. So it is time that this campaign for a uniform united Ireland corporation tax was addressed and answered before people get carried away thinking that it is a lovely idea. It is, as I say, attractive for those of us in business, but we have to think of the wider community and not simply of our own individual interests. Several issues in the order before us have been mentioned. I want to run very quickly over them and not detain the Committee much longer. The noble Lord, Lord Laird, mentioned the 2012 Olympic Games. It was stressed by the noble Lord, Lord Coe, and others that Northern Ireland would be involved in the national promotion of the Olympic Games, as would Scotland and Wales, but that it would mainly be London—naturally as the capital. I hope that the promise that Northern Ireland will be involved is honoured. I am sorry to say it, but we have at the moment a Government who, from time to time, are not perceived to be honouring their promises. This is one promise which I hope will be honoured. In so doing, it will of course mean that we need a national stadium—and a national stadium which has been properly researched—at the Maze. One of the great things about the Maze idea is not just that we would have a national stadium to house certain events such as a soccer match or something in the Olympic Games, but that it has been supported by the three main sporting organisations in Northern Ireland: first, the Irish Football Association, which promotes the Northern Ireland football team—which, as a keen supporter, I was glad to see won its game against Estonia last night—secondly, the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association—a very important decision—and, thirdly, the Ulster Council of the Irish Rugby Football Union. That body has made it clear that if the stadium is provided, it will ensure that not only will all Ulster rugby provincial matches—the Hennessy Cup and what-have-you—be played there, but that some of the main Irish internationals will once again come to Northern Ireland. When the original unity of rugby in Ireland took place, the idea was that there would be rugby internationals in Belfast as well as in Dublin at Lansdowne Road. That was dishonoured and they all ended up being played in the Republic of Ireland, with Republic of Ireland flags and national anthems. It ceased to be a team representing the whole of Ireland in the truest sense of the term. I am not suggesting that we take these games away from Dublin, far from it; it is the larger city. I want to see fair play and rugby internationals in Northern Ireland. That can occur only when we have a national stadium at the Maze. It is important that people, whether they live in Londonderry, Enniskillen, Armagh or Belfast, do not put their little areas first. In this case you have to put Northern Ireland first. The only way we can achieve the stadium is to have it located where those who researched the whole issue concluded that it would be best—that is the Maze. I want the Minister to confirm that the money is still available for that project and that it will be encouraged to proceed. I can see that with some kind of in-fighting going on, with the Belfast lobby and maybe some supporters of the Irish Football Association being against it, this stadium and the money could be lost. Let us, when we have it on the table, grasp the opportunity and proceed with this development. The noble Lord, Lord Shutt, mentioned the city airport and trains. I travel by train every week. One of the most wonderful trains runs from Craigavon to Sydenham at the Belfast City Airport. It is magnificent. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Laird, that the sooner we extend it to Larne, the better. When you arrive at city airport a lovely little white bus takes you straight to Sydenham in two minutes. I do not think that shifting Sydenham railway station is a priority. There are greater transport priorities in Northern Ireland than that; such as the new road to Carrickfergus, the rail system to Larne, a bypass at Cookstown, or whatever. So many infrastructure projects are necessary in Northern Ireland that I think that getting the railway station at Sydenham shifted is well down the list of priorities. Education was also mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Shutt. He is right: there has been a reduction in the birth rate for Northern Ireland and enrolments have therefore fallen at schools. If you have fewer children you need fewer schools and fewer teachers. That is realistic. We cannot avoid that. Today’s Irish Times states that there was a 25 per cent increase in the birth rate in the last year. It was collapsing, as those from Killaloo know, but this last year it went up by 25 per cent. We have an expensive education system in Northern Ireland because we have four different kinds of schools. The more different the schools, the more expensive it is. Instead of having one school serving the community—and it is not simply two schools, with 20 children going to the Roman Catholic school and 20 children going to the state school down the road—there are four systems. We have the Roman Catholic system, the state system, the integrated system and we now have the Irish Language system—four different systems, which means that our education system is going to be more expensive than in England for many years ahead. I am not one of those who will tell Roman Catholics, as seems to have been implied, that they should not go to a Catholic School. The idea that the 20 children who go to a Catholic school and the 20 who go to a state school should be combined into one school is not freedom of choice. I therefore believe that Roman Catholic parents should have the right to choose whether to send their children to a separate Catholic school system if that is what they prefer. I do not think that government should interfere to try to damage that system. There is reference to Armagh Observatory and the planetarium in Schedule 1. Living in Armagh City, I am very interested in the planetarium. Much rebuilding work has been going on there. It surprised me that such work was taking place as the planetarium is not an especially old institution. The observatory is, but the planetarium is a new building, yet major works have been carried out. Are those works now complete and is the planetarium about to be reopened to the public? I notice with disappointment that the London Planetarium has had to close down. I hope that at the same time the planetarium in Armagh City is about to enter a new era of success and will attract tourists to that ecclesiastical capital. Under the heading of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, there is reference to linguistic and cultural diversity. Often, that means supporting people who are interested in the Irish language or in the Ulster Scots language. With the ever-increasing number of people from foreign countries coming to Northern Ireland—there are now thousands of them—we must consider ethnic minority languages. In one of our weekly newspapers, the Tyrone Courier, because we now have more than 1,000 Portuguese people living in the Dungannon area, we now have a page in the Portuguese language. Firms now advertise in Portuguese in a County Tyrone newspaper. It is quite amazing that that should happen. Not only do we have foreign people from Portugal and Lithuania in Armagh, people from Poland in Newry, and so on, we have a very large Chinese community. In fact there are now more people speaking Mandarin in Northern Ireland than speak Irish Gaelic, yet we give priority to Irish Gaelic.  More than 10,000 people speak Chinese daily in Northern Ireland. That is a sizeable ethnic community. There are not 10,000 people speaking Irish every day in Northern Ireland—far from it. Let us consider the relevance of all these figures to see whether money is being disbursed fairly to those minority ethnic communities. Finally, I want to mention the north/south bodies, Waterways Ireland and the Northern Ireland Assembly. As I said, I regret that the Assembly has been suspended but I understand the reasons for that. The noble Lord, Lord Shutt, and his colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Smith, have often mentioned the continuing remuneration for Assembly Members—payments for their work in their constituencies, their salaries, and so on. I have always defended that ongoing payment to those elected Members because, in a democracy, you have a political society in each party. I am not just thinking of the Ulster Unionists, I am thinking of the Democratic Unionists, of Sinn Fein, of the SDLP, and so on. It is important to retain experienced politicians in those parties because that helps the democratic system. If all their allowances and payments were stopped, that experience would be wiped out and lost and totally new elected political Members would be appointed in the years ahead. It would be a pity to lose that experience. However, that cannot go on for ever. The public are disillusioned and are saying that those payments to Northern Ireland Assembly Members, including their expenses, cannot go on indefinitely; they will have to come to an end. I am sorry to say that, in my personal opinion, that end approaches us in the not too distant future. However, there is not only that payment, which is certainly interesting, there is also an ever-growing burden on the Northern Ireland Exchequer from the north/south bodies—in particular, their pension scheme. That now constitutes almost one-third of the cost of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Page 13 states that £15 million has been allocated from the Department of Finance and Personnel for pensions for those involved in the north/south pension scheme. As 30 per cent of the people of the island of Ireland live in the United Kingdom and 70 per cent live in the Republic of Ireland, presumably the pensions of those north/south personnel are being paid on a pro rata basis. I want that clarified today. If £15 million is coming from the Northern Ireland Exchequer, and we in Northern Ireland comprise 30 per cent of the population of Ireland, does that mean that there is a total of £50 million? The south of Ireland should be paying 70 per cent. Is it paying 70 per cent if we are paying 30 per cent? Does that mean that a total of £50 million is now going into a pension fund for north/south personnel and that, therefore, that pension fund is costing more than the suspended Assembly of Stormont? We need clarification of those figures. Finally, I want to comment on the subject on which the noble Lord, Lord Laird, is such an authority—Waterways Ireland. From what he says, I am convinced that, obviously, there is a problem, but the details go way beyond me. But, is it not time that there was an inquiry into the operation of Waterways Ireland? Should that not be brought out into the open? Is it possible for the United Kingdom Government, either from central, here in Westminster, or devolved, in Stormont, to carry out an inquiry into the north/south body, or are we being told that the Dublin Government have a veto over any inquiry into a north/south body? If that is the case, we are in a serious situation, which will mean even less support for the Belfast agreement, and I was among those who negotiated it in 1998.