G8 Summit

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lexden]

My Lords, reference has been made by my noble friend Lord Trimble and others in this debate to the splendid place in which the summit is to take place. Perhaps a few further comments may be appropriate, since it is a source of such pride to those of us who are closely connected to the affairs of Northern Ireland, on which I shall focus.

Those attending the forthcoming summit will find themselves in one of the most beautiful parts of our country. The celebrated traveller and expert on agriculture, Arthur Young, was captivated when he visited it in the 1770s. He recorded,

“the promontories of thick wood, which shoot into Loch Earne, under a shade of a great ridge of mountains, have the finest effect imaginable … the whole unites to form one of the most glorious scenes I ever beheld”.

His enthusiasm greatly pleased his host, Sir James Caldwell, who, when they parted, sent him on his way with,

“colours flying, and his band of music playing … on board his six-oared barge for Inniskilling”.

A century later, the anonymous author of a tourist guide to Ireland, published in 1886, described the Fermanagh lakes as the “Windermere of Ireland”, with a pen dipped in purple ink, and went on to lavish praise on Lough Erne. He said:

“Studded with islets, which dip their luxuriant foliage in its waters, it adds the beauties of a sylvan stream to the placid sternness of a majestic lake”.

Now we look forward to the impressions of my noble friend Lord Bates, who is to visit Lough Erne later in the year; I am confident that they will be just as favourable as those in the 18th and 19th centuries. Of course, he must bear in mind always the splendid quotation given to us by my noble friend Lord Brooke.

Let us hope that the leaders of the worlds’ greatest economies appreciate the great good fortune of holding their summit in a place of such outstanding beauty. It has been said many times in the run-up to the summit that such a gathering in Fermanagh would have been inconceivable even a few short years ago. It is a measure of the great progress that Ulster has made towards political stability and success that the summit is taking place in a county that has historically had its share of bitterness and strife, arising from the fairly even balance of unionists and republicans in its population. It is also a measure of the personal commitment of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister to Northern Ireland’s union with Great Britain that he felt so strongly that the meeting should be held in this part of our country. The Prime Minister is a man of generous liberal instincts; he has pledged himself to work for a Northern Ireland in which all sections of the community are fully involved in shaping what he has described as a,

“shared future, not a shared out future”.

He is a unionist by deep conviction.

The prospect of a shared future for the people of Northern Ireland, which the Prime Minister is so determined to advance, would not exist but for the far-sighted work of so many people over recent decades. My noble friend Lord Trimble is conspicuous among them; without him, there would almost certainly have been no Belfast agreement 15 years ago, providing the cornerstone of the new dispensation in Ulster. Without his insistence on proper standards of conduct by members of the Northern Ireland Executive when he was First Minister, devolved government might never have been eventually restored on a firm basis.

It is well known that Northern Ireland faces formidable economic problems, which this House discusses from time to time, as indeed it should, avoiding the grave error made in Westminster after the creation of Northern Ireland in 1920, when the Stormont Parliament was left entirely to its own devices. The sources of Ulster’s economic problems are readily identified: the public sector is unduly large and the private sector unduly small. It is the central aim of this coalition Government in Northern Ireland to rebalance the economy, and in this they have the enthusiastic support of the Northern Ireland Executive. There are now some encouraging signs of progress. Yesterday’s fall in unemployment continues a trend for the fourth consecutive month, the first time that that has happened in six years. The Province’s unemployment rate is now in line with that elsewhere in our country.

Many believed that the devolution of corporation tax to the Northern Ireland Assembly would form a major element of the necessary economic rebalancing. A very low rate of corporation tax could enable Northern Ireland to compete more successfully for inward investment with the Republic of Ireland, where the rate stands at just 12.5%. The Northern Ireland Executive and the Treasury concluded their discussions on the matter last year but the announcement of the Government’s decision has been postponed until 2014.

Other means of stimulating the private sector are needed and the G8 summit could make a valuable contribution. My right honourable friend Theresa Villiers, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has made that clear just today. She said:

“The Government has been working closely with ministers from the Executive to ensure that Northern Ireland gets the maximum benefit from the Summit. One recent study suggested that Northern Ireland could benefit from a £40 million boost to the economy in the short term, while two thirds of businesses believe the Summit will be positive or very positive. I know that a number of local businesses have been able to secure contracts as a result of the Summit”.

It is important, she went on to say, that,

“we do everything possible to ensure the Summit has a lasting legacy. So Invest NI is working with both the public and private sectors to highlight key inward investment and export opportunities. The Executive is planning an autumn investment conference. In addition the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Tourism Ireland are intensifying efforts to promote the region in key overseas markets and to promote more tourism here. Fermanagh has huge tourism potential and we want to capitalise on it”.

I applaud the Government’s determination to ensure that the summit brings lasting benefits to the wonderful part of our country where it is to be held.