HC Deb 10 July 1980 vol 988 cc747-8
15. Mr. McCusker

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on future energy policy in Northern Ireland.

Mr. Giles Shaw

Future policy on electricity will depend on the outcome of a comprehensive review of the position of the Northern Ireland electricity service now in progress. In the meantime, the Government have accepted a recommendation from the service that work on the second phase of Kilroot power station should cease. I shall shortly announce a package of financial assistance towards the orderly rundown of gas undertakings which have decided to close and to help consumers faced with the conversion or replacement of appliances.

Mr. McCusker

Because of the recent developments announced for the North Sea, including several substantial additional discoveries of gas—and bearing in mind that the report that the Minister has received indicates that a gas industry in Northern Ireland is economically viable—is it not time that he changed the decision that he announced 12 months ago and gave Northern Ireland the same benefits as are enjoyed by gas consumers in Great Britain?

Mr. Shaw

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the courteous way in which he gave me advance notice of the publication of the Cooper and Lybrand study to which he has just referred. We shall be undertaking a detailed examination of that study, and will let our findings be known in due course. Meanwhile, the decision which was announced last year must stand, and discussions with those gas undertakings which have decided to close must continue.

Rev. Ian Paisley

How can the Minister reconcile those two statements—that the gas industry is to close, yet he will study an interesting report which is contrary to the report on which he has based his original decision?

Mr. Shaw

There is nothing irreconcilable at all in the two statements that have just been made. I must remind the hon. Gentleman that the decision was taken last July primarily on the basis that the project for the gas pipeline would not be financially viable. The report just produced suggests that there may be a case that it would be financially viable, and we must assess that case. But the fact remains that the deficit financing involved in the report just made available costed something in the order of £130 million in relation to that project.

Mr. James A. Dunn

Will the Minister review the decision which was taken last July? Bearing in mind that further encouraging evidence may be presented to him, does he not agree that to be absolutely dependent on one form of energy would be shortsighted, and, indeed, at the end of the day, might jeopardise the future of the Province? I plead with the hon. Gentleman to look at this matter again.

Mr. Shaw

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman's concern as well as his experience in this matter. But the fact remains that gas accounts for 3 per cent. of the current energy requirement of the Province, whereas other fuels—oil and electricity—account for substantially more. It is a matter of reviewing the electricity problem. This is currently under way. Certainly gas represents a very small part of the energy requirements of the Province.