Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Durkan Excerpts
Thursday 8th March 2012

(12 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Ed Davey Portrait Mr Davey
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I am very confident. When I joined the Prime Minister for the Anglo-French summit in Paris recently, we were signatory to 12 commercial agreements, which included agreements with further education colleges that will be helping with that supply chain. However, it is not only FE colleges that will be involved, as there are supply chain improvements for training British employees in this new industry all over the country.

Mark Durkan Portrait Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)
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Apart from the wider policy issues arising from the Government’s attempting to skew investment towards nuclear through the carbon price floor, has the Secretary of State been able to consider the particularly adverse implications in the context of investment for energy in Northern Ireland, given the serious implications stemming from the single electricity market there.

Ed Davey Portrait Mr Davey
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I have to disagree with the hon. Gentleman. The carbon price floor is important if we want to move to a low-carbon future, to which I am completely committed. We understand the impact of the carbon price floor on energy-intensive industries. The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Charles Hendry) is talking with his colleagues in Northern Ireland to try to mitigate those issues.