§ THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy 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 whether they approved the questions in the children's opinion poll conducted last July by the Community Relations Committee of Northern Ireland.
§ THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND (LORD BELSTEAD)No, my Lords. The Northern Ireland Community Relations Commission is an independent statutory body. It did not consult the Ministry of Community Relations about the opinion poll.
§ THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy Lords, while thanking my noble friend for that reply, may I ask whether he would not agree that this particular opinion poll is inducive to stirring up trouble between the races, of which there is enough already? Secondly, while I concede that the Northern Ireland Community Relations Board have done much to contribute to good feelings in that country, will he make sure that questions of a similar sort are not asked again?
§ LORD BELSTEADMy Lords, the questions which are understandably troubling my noble friend were some of a whole series, and I am sure he would accept that to take only the questions which are troubling him, in isolation, is perhaps not to give the whole picture of the undertaking, which was to try to find out from the point of view of the Community Relations Commission how these holidays away from Northern Ireland affected young people. On my noble friend's second question, I should like to 1190 say that his concern in this matter has already been drawn to the attention of the Community Relations Committee. I propose also in due course to reiterate this by drawing the attention of the Commission to the OFFICIAL REPORT Of these proceedings.
§ THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy Lords, while I again thank my noble friend for that helpful reply, can he possibly arrange for some form of publication of the other questions to redress the balance that he says has been put out by my concern on this matter?
§ LORD BELSTEADMy Lords, I should like to make it clear that an undertaking was given that the answers would be treated in complete confidence. The questionnaire included a long list of questions of a general nature; and the leaders of the holidays received a form of pretty general questionnaire about how they saw the holidays unfolding. I will certainly undertake to write to my noble friend to try to amplify this information somewhat, but I do not think I can undertake that the questions will actually be published.