Northern Ireland Economy

I agree that someone might identify that as hypocritical. I do not know whether my hon. Friend is calling the National Trust a hypocrite, but it has not yet publicly objected. There could be suggestions of an objection. That would set things back, and we must avoid that at all costs. I welcome the fact that there will be even more holy ground in the golf mecca of North Antrim. The hon. Member for Belfast East (Naomi Long) rightly, and with pride, mentioned Wrightbus in my constituency. When I walk down Whitehall in the morning and I see dozens of bits of Ballymena passing by in bright red, it fills me with pride that that represents 1,000 jobs in Ulster. I hope that the Minister will go to Boris, the Mayor of London, and say, ““Increase that order. Get the 200 buses out there. Make sure that those buses continue to roll off the production line in Northern Ireland and generate more jobs.”” It fills me with pride. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong, where I saw double-decker buses that were made in Northern Ireland. We were not importing from but exporting to Asia, and that is fantastic. That is the way in which we want to get our companies to work. On the agri-sector, the hon. Member for Belfast South (Dr McDonnell) is right. It is the backbone of our economy. No matter which way we cut it, we are part of a £20 billion industry in food production across the United Kingdom. That is not to be sniffed at, but we have huge problems at a national level with regulation that unfortunately comes from Europe. Our Government must stand up to and address such regulation. I welcome some of the steps that are being taken by our Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ministers, but much more must be done to cut the red tape to allow our poultry and red meat industry and our value-added sector in food production to move forward and develop. EU regulations, for example, on the number of fish that someone can land are destroying coastal jobs up and down the south and north Antrim coast of Ulster. That should be addressed at a national level. I hope that we will do more to help the 20,000 farm businesses in Northern Ireland. I hope that the Minister will join me to encourage our DEFRA Ministers to organise a round table discussion in Northern Ireland with all the agricultural stakeholders, so that we can put together a common agricultural policy reform plan that will help move our agri-economy forward. We look forward to the national remedy that could be identified soon in our Select Committee report on fuel laundering and other forms of smuggling. For example, tobacco smuggling and fuel laundering in Northern Ireland accounts for some £200 million every year. That money could be far better spent by the Treasury in Northern Ireland or other parts of the UK if it was not stolen from the pockets of the people of this kingdom. We have a duty to ensure that those issues are addressed. I hope that the Government will drop their White Paper suggestion and potential policy for plain paper wrapping on tobacco products, as it could destroy 1,000 jobs in my constituency. That is a national matter—it has to come from here. Such a proposal must be dumped, because it will be disastrous for local jobs. I hope that we can come up with some positive suggestions to address fuel laundering and recoup some of the money that is lost. This week started badly for my constituency, with the loss of 50 jobs in the construction sector at Patton Homes. Construction and house building is a measure of economic confidence. Whenever it slows down or stops, it shows that confidence is waning. We have to make sure that we encourage our developers, our house builders and the construction industry in the ways that have been identified by my hon. Friends the Members for East Antrim and for Belfast North (Mr Dodds). I hope that we can do that. In conclusion, we should have the ability and the capacity to envision a better future for our economy and our country. We have a responsibility to do that. We should have the ability and the capacity as a country to cope with more than one major development project at a time. Sometimes, there is a view that we can deal with only one thing at a time. We must be able to adapt and show that we can deal with multiple, complex economic opportunities simultaneously. As my hon. Friend the Member for East Antrim ably suggested today, we need to introduce significant reforms to our banking structure. I hope that in our next Select Committee report, after our aviation strategy, we will examine banking sector reform and consider whether the structure disadvantages Northern Ireland. If it does, as many of us believe, I hope that we can try to change it. Our economy has a chance. We are on the verge of writing a new chapter for our economy, but it will happen only if we are prepared to put our hands on the plough and drive it forward. The Democratic Unionist party will not be found wanting in that endeavour.