Unmployment Statistics (Hansard, 10 February 1983)

§ 9. Mr. Parry
asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the latest unemployment figures for Northern Ireland.

§ Mr. Adam Butler
At 13 January 1983 there were 116,200 persons unemployed in Northern Ireland. The rate of unemployment was 20.8 per cent. A breakdown of these figures demonstrates the particularly severe level of unemployment in certain areas of the Province. The Government are persevering with their industrial development drive in the face of a continuing worldwide recession and with their comprehensive range of special measures to provide training for young people and to alleviate unemployment in the shorter term.

§ Mr. Parry
Are not those figures disgraceful, as are the figures for the rest of the United Kingdom? Recently the Home Secretary accepted in the House that there was a link between rising crime and high unemployment. Does not that also apply to the Province, particularly to young people? What positive steps do the Government intend to take to reduce unemployment, instead of making sympathetic statements and excuses?

§ Mr. Butler
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that that level of unemployment is far too high. The Government 1137 are taking, and have been taking for some months, a number of steps to help. I have outlined those steps to the House in the past. The hon. Gentleman referred to the link between criminal activity and unemployment. We agree with him, in the context of the Province. Already this afternoon my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has illustrated the important link between overcoming terrorism, political stability and the level of unemployment.

§ Mr. Molyneaux
Does the Minister recall the letter sent to all Members of Parliament by the Secretary of State for Employment, the compliment slip attached to which said: For information only. The scheme does not apply to Northern Ireland. Will the Minister ensure that parallel schemes exist in Northern Ireland? I refer to the community programme.

§ Mr. Butler
I am glad that the hon. Gentleman told me what the scheme was at the end of his question. The community programme equivalent has been operating with the greatest success in Northern Ireland. It is called "Action for Community Employment". The terms are slightly different, but essentially the scheme is the same. Only recently the number of places on it has been expanded from 1,200 full-time places to 3,500 full-time and part-time places.

§ Mr. McNamara
Will the Minister tell us whether it is intended to increase employment in Northern Ireland by increasing the number of judges so that at least one might be released to look into the workings of the emergency provisons legislation? Or is it impossible for the Government to find a judicial person of sufficient seniority to look into the workings of that Act, either because they dislike the whole status of the Act, or because they might be persuaded to extend its provisions to the whole of the United Kingdom—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. This question is on unemployemt in Northern Ireland.

§ Mr. Soley
Do not the figures show the wisdom of the proposals put to the Minister by the trade unions in Northern Ireland? To dismiss them as an increase in public expenditure, as the Secretary of State did, is totally unacceptable, when everyone knows that one reason why the Government cannot get public expenditure down is the consequence of mass unemployment?

§ Mr. Butler
My right hon. Friend has not turned down the report out of hand. He said that he had only just received it. He properly draws attention to the fact that the Northern Ireland committee of the Irish congress of trade unions is calling for additional public expenditure. That itself has its consequences on interest rates, probably on inflation, and therefore ultimately on unemployment. That runs contrary to the policy that the Government are pursuing.