§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
The Question was as follows
: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they realise that the ever-increasing transport costs in the Hebrides, culminating in the recent 25 per cent. increase in the charges of MacBraynes (a Government monopoly), are exerting an economic stanglehold on the resident population.
§ LORD HUGHESMy Lords, the Government regret as much as the noble Viscount that rising costs, from which no sector of the economy has been exempt, have made necessary increases in charges by all the shipping companies serving the Scottish islands, but I cannot accept what he says about their effects. The most recent detailed study which has been made of the impact of charges found that the freight element in consumer prices in the main islands was not significantly in excess of that in mainland areas remote from the main centres of distribution.
§ VISCOUNT MASSEREENE AND FERRARDMy Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply, but may I ask him whether he agrees that it does not really bear out what is happening in regard to the Isle of Mull where the cost of living, as regards the price of consumer goods, is higher than that on the neighbouring mainland? Will the Minister therefore bear in mind that if Her Majesty's Government wish to have a viable resident population remaining in the Western Isles, they must have cheap sea transport?
§ LORD HUGHESMy Lords, I am afraid that at this stage the noble Viscount has put a supplementary to his second Question, which I will deal with after he has put his second Question.