§ Mr. Peter Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much money is presently on loan to industry from each of the following: the Department of Commerce, the Northern Ireland Development Agency and the Local Enterprise Development Unit; and how many firms, if any, are in default in regard to these loans.
§ Mr. Adam ButlerThe information sought is as follows:
92W
Total loans at 31.3.81 Companies in Default £m Department of Commerce Northern Ireland (i) Loans under the Industrial Investment (General Assistance) Act 1966 1.7 2
Total loans at 31.3.81 Companies in Default £m (ii) Loans under the Industries Development Acts (Northern Ireland) 1966 and 1971 79.4 26 (iii) Loans under Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries (Northern Ireland) Order 1979 140.3 — Total, Dept of Commerce 221.4 28 Northern Ireland Development Agency 4.2 7 Local Enterprise Development Unit 3.1 208* * This figure includes an accumulation of bad debts arising over the entire period since LEDU's establishment in 1971. A programme to write-off these loans on a once-and-for-all basis is currently under way.
§ Mr. Peter Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many loans to industry have been written off and what is the total amount involved in each of the past six years; and how many firms were involved.
§ Mr. Adam ButlerDetails of the loans to industry from the Department of Commerce Northern Ireland, which have been written off in the last six years, the total amount involved and the number of firms involved are as follows:
No. of Loans Written-off Amount(£) No. of Firms 1975–76 2 13,000,000 1 1976–77 2 240,203 2 1977–78 — — — 1978–79 — — — 1979–80 — — — 1980–81 2 123,787 2 Over the past six years the Northern Ireland Development Agency has written-off two loans totalling £1,799,000 to two firms, both in 1979–80. In the same period, the local enterprise development unit (LEDU) has written-off 38 loans; one loan of £13,619 to one company was written-off in 1978–79 and 37 loans totalling £325,942 were written-off in 1980–81. The latter group represents the first stage of a one-off administrative operation formally to write-off all loans which fall into this category since LEDU's inception in 1971, rather than a sudden collapse of LEDU loans in the single year 1980–81.