HL Deb 10 November 1981 vol 425 cc100-1

2.42 p.m.

Baroness Ewart-Biggs

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 whether the recent reported statement of the European Council of Finance Ministers in Luxembourg represents Government policy in so far as the special funds totalling 30 million European units of account for housing in Northern Ireland will be additional funding to existing programmes.

The Minister of State, Treasury (Lord Cockfield)

My Lords, there is as yet no Community instrument to provide the legal authority for the Commission to make the proposed grant. But, as my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland explained in another place, Her Majesty's Government are co-operating fully with the Commission as it prepares the necessary regulation. If the proposed grant is made available, expenditure on housing in Northern Ireland will be higher than it could otherwise have been.

Baroness Ewart-Biggs

My Lords, I should like to thank the Minister for the Answer, but is he aware that it is only within the European framework that the Northern Irish political leaders have ever really found agreement? Would he not agree that it would be really beneficial to allow EEC funds to be additional to Treasury funds, so as to strengthen the framework of the European Community, in order for it to be used for other means of finding agreement between these leaders?

Lord Cockfield

My Lords, I hope the noble Baroness will forgive me if as a Treasury Minister I do not follow her into the wider issues of policy relating to Northern Ireland. So far as the actual grant from the EEC is concerned, of course we very much appreciate the helpful attitude of all the organisations of the Community towards this very difficult problem indeed. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State has made it very clear that if the grant is made, available expenditure on housing in Northern Ireland will be higher than it could otherwise have been.

Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge

My Lords, is the noble Lord really telling us that it will not be as high as the amount received? Because that is the implication of his answer.

Lord Cockfield

My Lords, I do not think that the noble Lord could read into what I have said anything of the kind. The total expenditure on housing in Northern Ireland this year is £207 million. The amount of the grant which is at present under consideration by the EEC amounts to 30 million units of account, equal to approximately £16 million.