HC Deb 27 May 1976 vol 912 cc390-1W
Mr. Biggs-Davison

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many inquiries concerning industrial investment in Northern Ireland have been made by overseas companies and by British companies, respectively, in each of the last five years.

Mr. Moyle

, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 21st May 1976; Vol. 911, c. 742], gave the following information:

The number of enquiries in response to letters from the Department of Commerce and the number of visits in each of the last five years was as follows. The figures for visits by company representatives in1973 are for November and December, the only months in that year for which information is available.

Complete information on redundancies is not available, but the number of persons employed in the textile and engineering industries in Northern Ireland who from 1st September 1971 to 31st December 1975 have qualified for payments under the Contracts of Employment and Redundancy Payments Act (NI) 1975 was as follows:

1 Sept. '71 to 31 Dec '71 1972 1973 1974 1975
Textiles 310 1,144 923 386 1,583
Engineering 443 803 150 212 1,761

The number of jobs which, under agreements with the Department of Commerce or the Local Enterprise Development Unit, firms undertook to provide in these industries in each of the last five years was as follows:

1971 1972 1973 1974 1975
Textiles 3,911 622 2,887 1,573 1,724
Engineering 1,971 884 778 1,655 602

Mr. Biggs-Davison

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people were employed in the construction industry in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.

Mr. Concannon

, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 21st May 1976; Vol. 911, c. 743], gave the following information:

Employment in the construction industry in Northern Ireland at June in each of the last five years is as shown below. The figures are obtained from the annual census of employment.

Year Numbers
1971 39,862
1972 41,128
1973 41,591
1974 38,531
1975 39,464*
* Provisional