§ 1. Mr. ParryTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he next expects to meet the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to discuss the economy.
§ The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mr. Robert Atkins)I met a delegation from the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions to discuss the economy in May. Neither my right hon. and learned Friend nor I have received requests for a further meeting.
§ Mr. ParryWhen the Minister next meets the ICTU, will he congratulate the trade union movement in Northern Ireland on organising huge and safe demonstrations for peace in the Province? Will he also state when the Government will publish their proposals on policy appraisment and the fair treatment paths?
§ Mr. AtkinsI join the hon. Gentleman in his congratulations. As a former president of the Conservative Trade Unionists, I, too, have an interest. I offer deep support for the trade unionists in their activities in Northern Ireland, not least for the event to which he referred, which was a solid and impressive demonstration by a wide variety of working people expressing their desire for peace to be achieved and for the problems to be resolved. I hope to be able to say something about the hon. Gentleman's special point in the not-too-distant future.
§ Mr. William RossDoes the Minister agree that not only members of trade unions but many other people in Northern Ireland are concerned about the training and retraining of people of all ages in the Province? When he next meets the trade unions, will he explain why money seems to be diverted from community workshops, which are badly run down in many parts of the Province, to private training agencies that apparently do little other than redirect people to colleges of further education?
§ Mr. AtkinsThe hon. Gentleman is being untypically unfair about some of the great work that has been done by a number of the organisations to which he refers. It is fair to say that, pleasingly, an increasing number of young people wish to stay on at school to get qualifications of one sort or another, but the numbers using some of the training facilities have declined. We have made it clear that we will honour the commitment to provide every youngster with a training place and I am determined to ensure that that occurs.
§ Mr. StottWill the Minister, during his discussions with Terry Carlin of the Northern Ireland trade union movement, explain how the Budget will help the economy in Northern Ireland, given that a typical family will pay £10 a week more in tax next year, which will rise to £16 a week more by April 1995? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that those tax increases, coupled with the new taxes on house and car insurance and on holiday travel, not to mention VAT on fuel and the freezing of personal 1149 allowances, will drastically reduce people's purchasing power? Is not it self-evident that those measures will have a detrimental effect on the economy in Northern Ireland?
§ Mr. AtkinsI should have thought that if I were to discuss matters with Mr. Carlin along those lines, I might find perhaps not his agreement, but his acceptance of the fact that, had the Labour party been elected, his members would have been worse off than they are now as a result of one of the most difficult recessions in recent years, which the United Kingdom is pulling out of faster than anyone else, leading the rest of Europe. I suspect that as Mr. Carlin is a fair and reasonable man, he would understand that point.