Business of the House

Laurence Robertson Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

We intend to announce this month which schools will be rebuilt through the priority school building programme. It has been necessary to make specific checks, with site visits, on the condition of all the schools that applied, and we want to get it right. An announcement will be made shortly, and the first schools that are rebuilt through this programme will open as scheduled in 2014.

[Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)]

Is the Leader of the House aware that the 44th meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly took place in Dublin on two days this week, attended by many right hon. and hon. Members from this House and another place, and from the Irish Parliament, including the Taoiseach? Today the Dáil is debating that meeting and hearing reports of our discussions on trade, transport, Northern Ireland, and environmental policies. Would it be helpful to this House, and perhaps to another place, if time were made available for us to report on the proceedings of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly?

[Sir George Young]

I applaud the work that my hon. Friend does as Chair of the Northern Ireland Committee and his involvement in the group he mentions. If the Committee did a report on these issues it could provide a route for their finding their way into a debate through the Liaison Committee. Alternatively, he could apply to the newly established Backbench Business Committee for a debate on the subject, or he might find it possible to speak about it at next Thursday’s pre-recess Adjournment debate and get a response from my hon. Friend the Deputy Leader of the House.