Lord Alderdice
Main Page: Lord Alderdice (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Alderdice's debates with the HM Treasury
(11 years, 10 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, that is exactly what this whole process is about. The complication, as I said earlier, is that if you devolve Northern Ireland corporation tax rate-setting to the Northern Ireland Assembly, you face a significant financial cost to the Northern Ireland budget, which, when last estimated by the Treasury, was thought to be in the region of £300 million.
My Lords, as I listen to the somewhat siren voices on all Benches, I seek reassurance from my noble friend that the interests of the people and of the economy of Northern Ireland will not be set aside because of excessive rigidities in Her Majesty’s Treasury on the one hand, and inappropriate comparisons with other parts of the United Kingdom that do not have, and I trust will continue not to have, an international frontier, on the other.
Absolutely, my Lords. The key question, as I was just explaining, is financial and is about the consequences for the Northern Ireland Executive’s budget if the tax is devolved. I think that is recognised within Northern Ireland. A recent poll by the Belfast Telegraph showed that, although 30% of those questioned were in favour of this move, a higher number—some 34%—were against it, and an even higher number did not have a view. That just demonstrates that this is a very complicated issue. On the second half of my noble friend’s question, Northern Ireland is clearly in a different position from that of the other nations and regions of the UK, simply because it does not have a land frontier with them but has a land frontier with the Republic of Ireland.