Corporation Tax (Northern Ireland) Bill
Lord Alderdice Excerpts(9 years, 1 month ago)
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Lord Alderdice (LD)
My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hay of Ballyore. I have been looking forward to his maiden speech for some time. He succeeded me as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and when it was announced in August last year that he would be coming to your Lordships’ House, I thought, “That is wonderful”. It has taken quite a while, but that is because he has had something of a scare. Sometimes when people are appointed to your Lordships’ House they say, “My goodness, I was so surprised that I nearly had a heart attack”. The noble Lord took that further than most people, which set him back a bit, so it is wonderful to see him in this House and to hear him speak.
Colleagues will know of the noble Lord’s long and distinguished public service in Northern Ireland. He was elected to Londonderry City Council in 1981, became deputy mayor of the city in 1992 and mayor in 1993. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly just after the formation of the Belfast agreement in 1998 and went on to be appointed Speaker in 2007. He served for some seven years until the latter part of last year. He has done a lot of other things as well. He was a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the Northern Ireland Housing Council and the Londonderry port authority. He has held many distinguished positions, but what noble Lords may not necessarily know about—because it is not the kind of thing that is recorded in Wikipedia, Dod’s or whatever—is the kind of work that the noble Lord has done quietly and privately but most significantly, especially in the city of Londonderry. There have been many difficulties, but as a member of the Orange Order and of the Apprentice Boys of Derry, quietly and behind the scenes he has forged remarkable friendships. He has demonstrated real leadership and—I make no criticism of his party here—he was prepared to go out in front of his party on occasion to lead it on to developing relationships with people in the nationalist and republican community which later would become an everyday matter. He was out in front and doing these things in a quiet and thoughtful way.
Consider his experience in the Northern Ireland Assembly. I know, from talking to members of all political parties, staff in the Speaker’s office and staff in the clerking department, that he is held in great affection and regarded with great appreciation for the quiet, thoughtful work that he does. This House will find that he will continue that kind of public service here. He is a man of great courtesy and thoughtfulness, but also a man of real determination to make things better for his community.
One of the other distinctive things about him, which makes St Patrick’s Day a particularly appropriate day for him to come here, is that he is an Irish citizen. He was born in Milford, in County Donegal. One does not necessarily associate noble Lords from the Democratic Unionist Party with Irish citizens, although one never knows what the future may hold. For him, it is a very distinctive feature, and he comes here on St Patrick’s Day as an Irish citizen.
Of course, this is an important day for the Corporation Tax (Northern Ireland) Bill as well. The noble Lord, Lord Hay, knows, because of his experience on both sides of the border, that the relationship between north and south was one of the important strands that we were trying to address in the Belfast agreement. One of the economic dilemmas we have faced is that corporation tax on the other side of the land frontier is much lower than in Northern Ireland. It has been one of the great successes that led to the Celtic Tiger, with its positive and difficult sides, but it is an important challenge for us economically in Northern Ireland.
My noble friend raised some questions as to whether this was just a money Bill or whether there were other elements to it and whether the Speaker of the other place had gone a little far in his certification of the Bill. As a former Speaker speaking just after a former Speaker, I do not think the noble Lord would expect me to question what the Speaker in another place would say, but there is more to the Bill than simply the question of money. No one, I think, would believe that the Bill on its own will address all the economic problems of Northern Ireland—far from it—but there is an important principle here. There are those in Northern Ireland who seek better relations with the Republic of Ireland economically, politically, socially and otherwise. It is very important that nationalists and republicans have it put to them that it is possible to move to greater tax harmony north and south of the border, but there are economic realities if you do that.
In Scotland, which my noble friend comes from, the Scots Nats have for years been claiming they wanted more powers, but they never used the income tax powers that they were given in the legislation of devolution. Had they not been given them, they would of course have complained. Here is the opportunity for nationalist and republican politicians, along with Unionist, Democratic Unionist and Alliance politicians, to face up to the political and economic challenges of instituting a corporation tax rate that is closer to that of the Republic of Ireland and different from that of the rest of the United Kingdom.
This is where we move from institutions of power sharing to the reality of responsibility sharing. We saw the dilemma of that just before Christmas last year, when the issue of welfare came forward, with all its social and financial implications. It was a real hurdle for people in the nationalist and republican communities to overcome.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
I am most grateful to my noble friend. I apologise for interrupting him, but as he has mentioned the Scottish position, I am, unusually for me, defending the Scottish Nationalists. The reason that the tartan tax powers were never used, by way of explanation for them, was that they could only set the rate. They could not change the allowances. This is precisely the position in the Bill, which allows Northern Ireland only to set the rate, while the allowances and all the other conditions are set centrally. Does it not have the same problem that prevented the Scots from doing so?
Lord Alderdice
No, it is not. I think it is the same problem, but I do not think that is the reason the Scottish Nationalists did not go down that road. I think the reason was they like to eat their cake and have it. They liked the possibility of being able to complain that they do not have the power to do things, but then, when they have the power, but there is an actual cost to doing it, they do not do it. I think we will find exactly the same thing in Northern Ireland. We had this dilemma over the Stormont House agreement. Nationalists and republicans signed up for the agreement and knew perfectly well that the sums did not add up. Then, when there came to be a bit of pressure and people asked, “Well, how does this actually work out?”, they backed off from it, and now they will find themselves having to move forward. The truth is that the peace process is less like riding a bicycle and more like playing an accordion, where people move backwards and forwards instead of straightforwardly. That is the reality of politics.
The Bill does not devolve corporation tax; it makes it possible for the devolution of corporation tax to take place—if there is responsible, political and economic governance in Northern Ireland, if there is a responsible budget that adds up, if parties then look at it and want the power, and if they then decide to implement it. In fairness, the world has changed economically over the last number of years and corporation tax in the Republic of Ireland may not stay at its current level, but in a sense those are secondary issues. This is about people having power to act responsibly and a responsibility to share that power in a serious fashion, taking into account all the dilemmas that are present.
On this St Patrick’s Day, when we share our patron saint as we share the piece of territory and the politics of the island, with different perspectives and different views but nevertheless with a sense of vision and hope for the future, with all the difficulties and dilemmas that we have, this is an opportunity to challenge my colleagues at home to use the power and responsibility that are being offered to take us forward. I hope that none of us here or there will be found wanting in that regard.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
I understand that. I was making the point, perhaps wrongly, that one reason why it has not been done is that it would result in a reduction in the block grant—the point made so eloquently by the noble Baroness, Lady Blood. I think that my noble friend Lord Alderdice earlier referred to the position in Scotland, where the Scottish Parliament allowed its income tax raising powers to desist. They were never used. The reason they were never used was that using them would have resulted in a corresponding reduction in the block grant. It is not terribly electorally smart to tell people that you are going to put their income tax rate up by 3p and, in return, you are going to have the block grant—which is already very generous because of the Barnett formula—reduced by exactly the same amount, so you ask people to pay more tax in order to stay where they are. Exactly the same applies here, unless you believe that a reduction in corporation tax will result in more revenue. I do believe that that is the case, but I would prefer to see this Government, who have made fantastic progress in reducing the rate of corporation tax for the United Kingdom as a whole down to 20p for the next financial year, continue in that way. If we think that there is such a huge problem in tax competition from the Republic of Ireland, the answer to that is to reduce our corporation tax rates nearer those of the Republic of Ireland. But we do not do that because the cost would mean that we would have to make cuts in other public services, such as health and education. Exactly the same applies to Stormont.
Lord Alderdice
I am very grateful to my noble friend for giving way. The problem that I have found is that these changes are not made because they do not work for the Treasury here in London, and it regards the value for people in Northern Ireland to be far too small an issue, one that does not get any attention paid to it. That is the reason. The reason for the air passenger duty with respect to the United States is because it is so easy for people to go across the border and to fly out of Dublin. The whole point is that there is a land border. If Scotland was to leave the United Kingdom, I think that you would find that a lot of those kinds of changes became relevant. But it is very important to understand that the situation in Northern Ireland is quite different from that in Scotland, because it is so small, does not have a large financial industry and has a land border. Those are the many reasons why read-across to Scotland does not work, with due deference to my noble friend.
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
I think that the argument about the land border is overemphasised. I happen to know that people fly from Scotland to Dublin to go on international flights because the flights from Dublin are priced by the airlines at a very much lower rate. That has nothing whatever to do with air passenger duty or taxation and everything to do with the view of the commercial airlines of what the market will bear for their fares. It is a very simple thing to hop on an aeroplane—there are about six or seven a day out of Edinburgh and as many out of Glasgow—to go to Dublin and then to fly to wherever you want to go, to Hong Kong or the United States or wherever. So I do not think that that argument holds water; but perhaps that is a mixed metaphor, because my noble friend is arguing that it is about a land border.
I am totally opposed to giving air passenger duty powers to the Scottish Parliament because it will have a catastrophic effect on Newcastle and the rest of the north of England. Already the amount that we pay in taxes is very considerable. I am arguing that as a United Kingdom we should have a unitary tax system and that this tinkering is absolutely inimical to maintaining a United Kingdom. If as a United Kingdom we believe that reducing corporation tax will result in more revenue and business development, that should be the policy for the United Kingdom.
The noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, chided me for attacking capitalism when it was his job. I was merely pointing out to him the inconsistency of his position. If he supports this Bill and argues that he is in favour of these reductions in corporation tax to help business expand and grow, he cannot at the same time satisfy the noble Baroness, Lady Blood, in her concern about the impact—even if you believe, as I believe, that cutting the top rate of tax from 50% to 45% has resulted in revenues going up by £8.5 billion. I believe that tax cuts can have a dynamic effect. Similarly, when the Liberal Democrats insisted on putting up capital gains tax from 18% to 29%, what happened? The revenue went down by several billion pounds. My noble friend nods; I apologise for not being very positive. However, even if you believe that that is not the case, there is a time lag, and in between times you do not have the money and you have to take that money away from public services. The noble Baroness made that point. I do not think that will be particularly popular and it seems a very strange approach to a situation where people cannot agree on balancing the budget and on meeting their obligations as it is. So I think this Bill is a deal and a piece of constitutional tinkering which is misguided in its approach.
As a Scot, I am worried because I have not heard a single argument here today, other than there is a land border, which will enable me to fend off the devo-max brigade in Scotland and the nationalists who are now running rampant in the polls. The latest poll has them on 55%. That has all been caused by raising expectations and confusing two things—that is, confusing more powers with more money. Everyone in this Chamber knows that having more powers will actually mean less money, but it is being sold to the voters—I suspect that it may well have been sold in this way in Northern Ireland—that if their parliament has more powers, they will have better education and health services and better everything else. However, that is a fantasy. When people wake up to the fact that this is a misguided fantasy, they will blame London and our United Kingdom will be fractured. Therefore, I am very disappointed by this Bill.
However, I agree with my noble friends Lord Alderdice and Lord Trimble on the importance of stimulating the private sector. Scotland also has too large a public sector and we need to encourage business, but corporation tax is paid only by profitable businesses and businesses which are generating capital for investment. However, lots of businesses are struggling. If you want to encourage businesses and cut taxes—that is a priority—why not deal with business rates and levels of national insurance, as I hope my right honourable friend the Chancellor will tomorrow? Corporation tax is a very odd choice indeed.
For all that is said about the success of the tiger economy in the Republic of Ireland, corporation tax receipts went up so dramatically in the Republic when the rates were low because lots of businesses operating in the United Kingdom repatriated their profits to the Republic. According to leaks that have emerged before the Budget, the Chancellor says that he will take action against the Amazons and others who organise their affairs so that they pay tax in low corporation tax countries. The Government seem to be trying to have it both ways.
By the way, no one has mentioned the impact of all this on the Barnett formula. The Labour leader in Scotland is saying that if people vote nationalist, they will lose Barnett. If you continue to devolve more and more tax-raising powers to the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, by definition you will erode and lose Barnett. As was pointed out in the earlier part of the debate, we also have to think about why there is such a disparity in grant to the constituent parts of the United Kingdom. Therefore, as we go down this road, we must move towards a more needs-based system of funding which again will put pressure on Northern Ireland and the public services. So I am with the noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, in arguing that we need a constitutional convention and we need to look at these things as a whole and not on a bit-by-bit basis. Does the noble Lord wish to intervene?
Lord Newby (LD)
My Lords, perhaps surprisingly, it was with a certain amount of affection that I looked at the possibility of speaking in this debate today because the first Question I answered from the Dispatch Box, nearly two and half years ago, was about the devolution of corporation tax to Northern Ireland. It was one of the most frightening experiences of my life. Despite that affection, I am not sure that I can share the worry, or sadness, of the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, that we will miss the fun of Committee. There are many adjectives I could think of that would describe a Committee stage on this Bill, but I am afraid I am not sure that “fun” would be near the top of my list. Perhaps that shows a lack of imagination.
I am delighted to be able to congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Hay of Ballyore, on his excellent maiden speech. He brings with him a formidable reputation as someone who has been able to persuade people, in a quiet, effective way, to work together for the good of the community at large. It is clear that these qualities are still needed in Northern Ireland today, just as they ever were. Those qualities are going to be needed if we are going to see the kind of economic development that everybody who has spoken on the Bill wishes to see in Northern Ireland.
The noble Lord, Lord Bew, I think, stressed the key issue and the key difference that has characterised the debate today, which is one of expectation. Some in Northern Ireland have very high expectations for the Bill, while others, in your Lordships’ House, have very low expectations. There is very clearly, in this Chamber at least, no agreement on that. At one end of the spectrum we have the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, and at the other, the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Belmont, but it is quite telling that the greatest enthusiasts for this legislation are those in Northern Ireland who, on a daily basis, are grappling with how to make the economy stronger. The political parties and the business community are extremely keen on this. To respond to the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Oldham, on whether we should do this or business rates, the business community have said that this is what they want. It is in response to a combination of the strength of feeling in the business community and of that in the political parties that the Government have entertained this measure.
Whatever view you take about the desirability of doing this, there is clearly a huge amount of uncertainty about what the outcome will be: there are many variables that we cannot possibly bottom out at this point, several years before it comes into force. However, for the rest of my time, I will deal with some of the concerns noble Lords have raised and clarify some of the issues which are clearly uppermost in people’s minds.
The noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, began by expressing the hope that there would not be brass-plating—companies just having a brass plate in Northern Ireland and doing business elsewhere. The rules in the Bill contain many features to protect against avoidance. In addition to the exclusion of investment income, the main one is the adoption of rules for large companies which are based on existing international principles. Pure brass-plating simply will not be possible because the rules require a physical presence in Northern Ireland and, more fundamentally, a calculation of Northern Ireland’s trading profits, as if the company were a stand-alone entity, so that concern should not be too great.
A number of noble Lords, starting with the noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, asked about the modelling of the impact of the different rates. The example that the Government have set is on the basis of a 12.5% rate of corporation tax in Northern Ireland, assuming a 20% UK rate. This is expected to be £325 million in 2019-20, which will be the first steady state year if implementation takes place in April 2017 and if the rate in Northern Ireland from April 2017 is 12.5%. Obviously, the Executive will have the power to consider the impact of setting the rate. The UK Government will continue to work with them on the detail of the block grant deduction.
The noble Lord’s question on modelling led into his second question about the impact on overall income for the Executive and what that could mean in terms of levels of public expenditure. This is a key question that the Executive will have to decide, but one way in which they might decide to progress—I am not saying that they will do this—rather than going through a very big change in one year, is to reduce the rate over a number of years, as we have done in the UK, so that you set a direction of travel, with a rate of 12.5% as the end-point. It would not be necessary to implement it all from year one. The reason why we have spread it over a number of years here is that it spreads the cost, while at the same time giving companies that are investing the UK a sense of where they are going to be in a few years’ time.
The other point in terms of how the Executive will be able to manage a potentially big reduction in their income is that the impact does not all come in in one go. Even if you were to reduce the rate to 12.5% from day one, the impact on the Executive’s budget would rise from £120 million in 2017-18 to £280 million in 2018-19, and then get to the steady state level of £325 million in 2019-20. So, in any view, you will have a phasing in.
My noble friend Lord Trimble pointed out that the Varney report suggested that there was a raft of other things just as important as this tax change for the viability and strength of the Northern Ireland economy, including the labour market, telecommunications and transport; obviously, that is true. We have, as a Government, been helping the development of high-speed broadband and the transport infrastructure in Northern Ireland. But if anybody thinks that we are going to get the full benefit of a reduction of corporation tax while standing still on all these other very important issues, they are clearly incorrect.
I believe that my noble friend Lord Trimble was the first to raise the issue of how the rest of the UK would see this change—a point very eloquently developed by my noble friend Lord Forsyth. As far as Scotland and Wales are concerned, the Smith commission did not recommend devolution of corporation tax, nor did the Silk commission in Wales. The suggestion that there will inevitably be the same kind of pressure from Scotland and Wales as there has been from Northern Ireland is not really borne out by the experience of the views of the political parties in those parts of the United Kingdom.
Lord Alderdice
I shall press my noble friend a little. There is a huge focus on what happens if this is introduced and all the modelling and so on. I emphasise to him that part of the purpose of this is so that those people who want to take Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom and who want to harmonise the arrangements with the rest of the island are, by the device of this Bill, made to face the real political and economic consequences of any such process. The likelihood is that, whether because things would change or not, they will look at the situation, add up the sums and discover that going down this road is not what they want to undertake. This is a completely different thing from the situation in Scotland or Wales where there is not another country that people want to be part of that is a comparator or competitor. If Northern Ireland has this power and decides not to use it, that is a very strong pilot exercise to say to people in Scotland and Wales that there is no point in going down this road because it is not actually a serious economic goer. I want to emphasise that there is a political dimension to this in terms of Northern Ireland that is quite separate from any of the economic debate which has formed a large part of this debate.
Northern Ireland: Illegal Petrol and Diesel
Lord Alderdice Excerpts(9 years, 9 months ago)
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Lord Newby
My Lords, I can absolutely do that. First, perhaps I may correct the noble Lord. A quarter of all diesel consumption is not illegal; 12% to 13% is illegal; the balance is made up of diesel that is bought in the Republic and brought across. I also assure the House that it is not true that there have been no convictions in this area. There were nine convictions last year, nine convictions the previous year and four convictions the year before. It is true that, unlike in the rest of the UK—or, rather, in England and Wales—there have not been custodial sentences in Northern Ireland, but legislative change last December was undertaken specifically to deal with that problem.
Lord Alderdice (LD)
My Lords, when the Independent Monitoring Commission was established by the British and Irish Governments, we sought to investigate this problem and were shocked to discover that, despite the fact that the Northern Ireland Office had been there for a very long time and was very well resourced, almost no resource was being put in by HMRC to address it. It just did not seem a priority. We worked very hard, without trying to create a problem or embarrassment for the Government. It is true that, by the time that we were finishing up, HMRC had appointed a substantial number of people to address the problem, but there is now no Independent Monitoring Commission and the Northern Ireland Office is a shadow of its former self. How can the House be assured that there will be proper monitoring and accountability to ensure that HMRC continues to do what it needs to, because that certainly was not the case in the past?
Queen’s Speech
Lord Alderdice Excerpts(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Alderdice (LD)
My Lords, in the debate on the Queen’s Speech last year, I said:
“Unless those of us who are pro-Europe are able to convince the rest of our colleagues in Europe to take seriously what needs to be done”—
on a series of issues—
“our people will not be persuaded that Europe is a viable entity”.—[Official Report, 15/5/13; col. 441.]
That would be the ultimate tragedy. We have not succeeded, and I think that we have not even gone the right way about trying to persuade our people. All the talk of jobs, the economy, currencies and our standing in the world is not very persuasive, and furthermore it was not the purpose of the European project. The European project was to ensure that we did not go back to killing each other, as one of my noble friends said earlier in this debate.
I find it astonishing that during a period when we have centenaries and other anniversaries to remind us of what we did to each other in Europe in the last century, we seem to have failed completely to address the need to connect the young people of this generation not just with the sacrifices made by those of previous generations, but with the reason for those sacrifices, and thus the reason that the European project is crucial to ensuring that the next generation does not have to make the same kinds of sacrifice all over again. I plead with the Government to look again at the approach they have taken to the European question and to recognise the tremendous opportunity not to use these anniversaries, but to acknowledge that they are being commemorated to ensure that we do not return to war again.
However, it will not be enough just to persuade and argue. For us to attack Mr Putin or other parties is completely futile. We threaten that all sorts of dreadful things will happen, but we do not make the materiel available to ensure that we could do anything. A week or so ago I came back from Helsinki. My friends there are increasingly worried that while NATO can make all sorts of promises about what it might do, it does not have the capacity to intervene anywhere at all from the military point of view—and Mr Putin knows that perfectly well. There is no evidence that anyone in Europe is taking this seriously. We have less and less capacity to defend ourselves without our American friends, so are we taking it seriously?
Last year, I spoke of the Middle East and said:
“I desperately hope that when we come to debate the Queen’s Speech next year we will not do so in the context of some kind of catastrophic conflagration that has developed from the situation in the Middle East, because we are perilously close to it”.—[Official Report, 15/5/13; col. 442.]
The word “conflagration” is precisely the one that was used by my noble friend Lord King of Bridgwater. He pointed out that the danger is not just in the Middle East itself. He said that it is from Mumbai to Mali. He is right, but Mumbai and Mali are not just “over there” faraway places: they are here in our own towns and cities, where many people look at what is happening to their friends, families and co-religionists and feel moved to act and react. This is not a question simply of foreign policy; it is increasingly a question of domestic policy. If we do not find ways of paying more attention to how we deal with these matters, we will be facing them in an increasingly serious and dangerous way.
Finally, I turn to Scotland and Northern Ireland. If the First Minister, Mr Salmond, has his way, Scotland will be a separate country and, if he has his way, a part of the EU. If Scotland were to leave the United Kingdom, the possibility of a referendum within the United Kingdom to leave the EU would be much greater, in my view. The border between England and Scotland would become not just an English-Scottish border but an EU border. Furthermore, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland—a border we have increasingly been trying to address through the peace process, to make it more open to people—would become an EU border. Whatever the consequences may be on this side of the water, I have to tell your Lordships of my anxiety about what developments of that kind would do to a fragile peace process on my side of the water within the United Kingdom. These are serious issues as well, so serious that they are not simply matters of the Scots and for the Scots—they affect all of us.
All these issues are related. UKIP is not a United Kingdom issue: look at the results of the elections in the rest of Europe and you will see other parties with similar unpleasant, xenophobic, racist attitudes developing in other parts of the European Union. This blowing apart, this mood that is developing of being against the other and turning in on oneself, is not a local matter, it is not a national matter, it is not even just a European matter, but it is a matter that could take us down the road to serious violence, for which I believe we are ill prepared.
It worries me greatly that with matters of this consequence, our Government decide that we should have a one-day debate with more than 80 speakers to address these issues, which could take us down a road leading we know not where. I hope that my ministerial friend will be able to tell us at the end of today that we will have the kind of time that our Government need to take the advice of your Lordships’ House on matters of this danger and consequence.
Northern Ireland: Corporation Tax
Lord Alderdice Excerpts(11 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Newby
My 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.
Lord Alderdice
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.
Lord Newby
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.
Ulster Bank
Lord Alderdice Excerpts(11 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Sassoon
My Lords, I agree that the difficulties clearly are continuing. I looked at the Ulster Bank website. I see that it is giving daily updates of the situation and it has been completely clear that it is unlikely that it is going to be fully resolved until around 16 July. I repeat that RBS has made a commitment that no business or individual will be left permanently out of pocket as a result of this. The interpretation of that will no doubt raise the issues which the noble Lord raises.
Lord Alderdice
My Lords, the situation for people in Northern Ireland is extremely serious, as my noble friend has said. The noble Lord, Lord McAvoy, has raised the question of those who get benefits, but this nationalised bank run by the Government is also failing to address the needs of those whose salaries and wages are paid in, including from the Government. A number of private sector employers are helping out their employees who find themselves in immediate financial embarrassment during this holiday season. Is there any possibility that the Government, whose own employees are failing to have their salaries and wages paid in, can help in any way in the short term?
Lord Sassoon
My Lords, my noble friend makes a very good point. I do not know what arrangements are being made because, again, it is going to be principally affecting employees of the devolved Administration. But I will take that issue back. I am sure it is being thought about by my colleagues in Government but I will remind them of it.