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6.32 pm
The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mr. Michael Ancram): This has been a very useful debate, which was launched in an admirable manner by the right hon. Member for Lagan Valley(Sir J. Molyneaux). As the hon. Member for North-East Derbyshire (Mr. Barnes) pointed out, it is interesting that hon. Members talked, by and large, about the economy and did not drift into an appropriation order debate--although the hon. Member for East Londonderry(Mr. Ross) echoed a debate of that sort as he listed the points that he would like answered. Nevertheless, we have had a constructive debate to which I hope to respond positively.
The hon. Member for North-East Derbyshire--who unfortunately has had to leave the Chamber--gave his Front Bench a little grief about whether Labour should organise itself in Northern Ireland. I do not wish to interfere in that argument. However, he surprised me by suddenly heaping praise upon the hon. Member for Barnsley, Central (Mr. Illsley), whose speech took the rest of us by surprise. I think that he was trying to enunciate Labour's new policy for Northern Ireland and, in fairness to him, I shall study his remarks carefully.
The hon. Gentleman referred to issues such as training and education and the like, but he did not offer anything tangible. That may have been a deliberate strategy, because the last time that he spoke in such a debate, he told us what Labour intended to do in office. When I asked him what its policies would cost, he said that that was an unfair question. I then asked what services would be sacrificed in order to pay for them and he said that that question was even more unfair. Therefore, I suspect that he deliberately avoided giving any details today--but one day, the people of Northern Ireland will want to know what part of the Northern Ireland budget will pay for new Labour's policies.
The hon. Gentleman called for the unqualified application of the social chapter in Northern Ireland.I may be wrong, but I thought that--although it intends to get rid of qualified majority voting--new Labour intended to pick and choose what it wanted from the social chapter. However, the truth came out today, when the hon. Gentleman foreshadowed that the Labour party would implement the social chapter in full. I admire the hon. Gentleman for almost managing--but not quite--to keep a straight face. I am reminded of the remark of a Labour Member who said that in the Labour party one must learn to defend the indefensible. I think that the hon. Gentleman did that pretty well tonight.
We have had an instructive and wide-ranging debate. Obviously, I do not agree with all that has been said, but we have identified a number of important points regarding the Northern Ireland economy. Several hon. Members referred to employment and unemployment in Northern Ireland--issues that are central to any economic debate about any part of the United Kingdom. In a perspicacious speech, my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke(Mr. Hunter) made several good points. For example, he pointed to the fact that unemployment in Northern Ireland is now at its lowest level since May 1981.
It is worth registering that unemployment in Northern Ireland has fallen by 20,000 since 1993. It is encouraging to note that some of the biggest falls in unemployment were recorded in areas that were badly affected by violence in the past. For example, in the past year the Belfast, West parliamentary constituency has seen a fall of 14 per cent., which is almost three times the Northern Ireland average. Those figures are particularly relevant in the light of what has been said about the importance of peace to the Northern Ireland economy.
A similar case can be made in terms of employment. The latest available employment figures for December 1995 are 8,550 more than for December 1995 and, encouragingly, they are 6,260 more than for September 1995. The main increase in employment was in the services sector, but employment in manufacturing increased also. Employment in Northern Ireland has risen faster than in the United Kingdom throughout the 1990s. We often identify what is wrong with Northern Ireland, but tonight hon. Members on both sides sounded the trumpet for Northern Ireland. It is right that we should show the world how well Northern Ireland is doing.
Hon. Members referred also to inward investment projects. I have no doubt that the conferences held by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in November 1994 and by President Clinton in Washington in May last year contributed to the momentum for investment. It is important to note that, since September 1994, shortly after the IRA ceasefire, there have been 17 new Industrial Development Board-backed inward investment projects involving £360 million in investment and promoting almost 5,000 new jobs. The hon. Member for East Londonderry inquired about inward investment and about what action had flowed from the conferences. It is worth pointing out that there have been significant successes in that period.
The position with regard to output remains encouraging. Since 1991, Northern Ireland manufacturing output has risen by 15 per cent., which is almost twice the United Kingdom average. My hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke mentioned exports, and I can give him some later and better figures. Since 1991-92, Northern Ireland's exports have risen by 48 per cent., compared with 30 per cent. for the United Kingdom as a whole. That is a welcome sign that Northern Ireland is becoming increasingly competitive and outward looking.
The hon. Members for East Londonderry and for South Down (Mr. McGrady) mentioned the tourist sector. Visitor numbers in 1995 broke all records, with the total number of visitors topping 1.5 million. The number of holiday visitors increased by 67 per cent. to 460,000. Tourism is obviously sensitive to the security situation, but it is encouraging to note that major hotel chains have made two investments worth £26 million since Canary wharf on 9 February. Clearly, the confidence remains to
invest, and I urge hon. Members not to mock investments simply because they are large. Any investment in tourism that demonstrates confidence in Northern Ireland at this time should be widely welcomed.
A vast number of points were raised and I shall try to deal with some of them. The hon. Member for Foyle(Mr. Hume) and others, including the hon. Member for East Londonderry, raised the issue of beef and BSE. He spoke eloquently about a serious problem and I agree with much of what he said.
We are all concerned about the effect of the BSE crisis on Northern Ireland, not least because of the importance of the beef industry to the Northern Ireland economy and the number of jobs that depend on it. We see the European Union export ban impacting more severely on Northern Ireland than on Great Britain because of its greater reliance on exports. The Government's priority is to get the ban lifted and to restore confidence in British beef.
As the hon. Member for East Londonderry pointed out, there will be several opportunities to debate the matter over the next few days, so I shall not spend too much time on it this evening. However, I should refer to the fact that the hon. Member for Foyle argued for separate BSE status from the rest of Great Britain because Northern Ireland has a substantially lower incidence of BSE. He also mentioned the unique computer system that enables its movements to be traced.
There is considerable force in the hon. Gentleman's arguments, but to pursue a separate status for Northern Ireland at this time would be counter-productive to the United Kingdom's principal objective of having the unjustified and illegal ban on the entire United Kingdom beef industry removed. I can assure the House that the Government are committed to continuing and renewing our efforts towards that crucial objective. I was grateful to the hon. Member for East Londonderry for accepting that it has to be achieved on an United Kingdom-wide basis.
The hon. Member for Foyle also asked whether Northern Ireland and the border counties could become a duty-free zone for goods from Northern Ireland to the United States. That is an interesting and somewhat novel concept, but it would involve considerable difficulties that I am sure he would wish to consider. Trade agreements for members of the European Union are made by the European Union on behalf of all member states. Single states cannot make arrangements on their own behalf, still less for parts of member states, as the project would suggest. Therefore, I do not believe that legal powers exist to negotiate separate agreements of that kind.
There would be severe practical problems even if the legal issues could be overcome, which in my view would be highly improbable. The European Union is a customs union with free movement of goods within its borders. Therefore, it would be impossible to distinguish between goods originating in Northern Ireland and the border counties and goods moving through those areas, but originating in other parts of the European Union. In other words, the free trade zone could not be policed and goods from elsewhere would be drawn through Northern Ireland and the border counties and could cause great distortions of trade. It is an interesting concept, but in practical terms it would fail on the basis of a number of those tests.
The hon. Member for Belfast, North (Mr. Walker) made an important speech promoting the city of Belfast. During my three years as a Northern Ireland Minister, I have sometimes thought that Belfast was sitting there waiting to be promoted, but it does not happen often. Tonight the hon. Gentleman made a powerful speech, in which he drew attention to the important developments that have taken place in Belfast and why it is a good place in which to live and invest. I congratulate him on his remarks.
The hon. Gentleman raised a number of significant points, including the importance of concentrating on new technology. As Minister responsible for education in Northern Ireland, I know of the immensely good work within the two universities, which are producing high-quality graduates and, as was also pointed out, are doing so at a lower level of education through the NVQ system. We are now moving towards producing skilled people with a good qualification, who can take up the challenge of new technologies.
The hon. Gentleman referred to Belfast as the city of information, and I am sure that it will not let him down in that respect. Belfast will very much welcome his speech, which I hope will be heard by a wider audience than just the hon. Members present in the Chamber tonight.
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