HL Deb 05 March 1973 vol 339 cc860-1

2.37 p.m.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what consultations they have had with the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Trade Union Congress regarding their programme for economic expansion.

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND (LORD WINDLESHAM)

My Lords, Ministers maintain close touch with the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, both directly and through the Committee's participation in the Northern Ireland Economic Council and similar bodies. The Government are therefore well aware of the unions' programme for economic expansion and welcome the attention focused on key social and economic issues.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, I welcome the attendance of the Minister, because only yesterday he was in Northern Ireland. May I ask him this supplementary: Did he not see the trade union leaders in Northern Ireland this week-end on the bus issue, and did he then take the opportunity to discuss with them the progress about working conditions, employment, housing and, particularly, the economic aid for the deprived areas which the Northern Ireland Committee of the Trade Union Congress has put forward?

LORD WINDLESHAM

My Lords, I had the opportunity to meet the Northern Ireland officers of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions not once but twice over the weekend. Yesterday's meeting was to discuss the stoppage of buses in Belfast and certain other parts of the Province, and was concerned specifically with that issue. But I also met representatives of the unions, the Churches and community organisations on Saturday to discuss with them the formation of a new committee, Citizens United for Reconciliation and Equality (CURE) which is concerned with most of the underlying matters to which the noble Lord has referred.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, while tremendously welcoming what the Minister has said, may I ask whether there is not now a new possibility of working-class unity of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland? Even when they disagree profoundly on the issue of the Union, should not that possibility be encouraged as a method of bridging the great gap between the Catholic and Protestant working-class communities?

LORD WINDLESHAM

My Lords, I would agree that any coming together of groups who traditionally may have regarded themselves as separated by different ideals of one kind or another, is to be welcomed in the present situation.