(AQW 3897/01)

The Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Sir Reg Empey): [holding answer 21 June 2002]: During the past five years my Permanent Secretary visited New York on 2 occasions and the Chairman of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) on 5 occasions on tourism business. In addition the Permanent Secretary visited Bord Failte Eireann (BFE) while attending an Industrial Development Board Road Show in October 1998.

(AQW 3985/01)

Sir Reg Empey: In June 2001, the Executive considered a gas project which involves the construction of gas transmission pipelines from near Carrickfergus to Londonderry (known as the North West pipeline) and from Gormanstown, County Meath linking into the North West pipeline near Antrim (known as the South North pipeline). The Executive believed that the project was of strategic importance and commissioned further information and negotiations in relation to it.

The strategic policy objectives against which the project has been measured are:

• the Executive’s Programme for Government aims to ensure that our energy infrastructure meets the standards that our economy requires, which includes strengthening gas interconnection and an all-island energy strategy in a European context;

• DETI’s objectives of an all-island energy strategy and ensuring a secure, diverse, competitive and efficient energy market;

• DETI’s statutory responsibilities under the Gas Order to promote the development and maintenance of an efficient, economic and co-ordinated gas industry in Northern Ireland; and

• the European policy obligation of contributing to the establishment and development of Trans European Networks in the area of energy infrastructure.

The project was considered to deliver the following outcomes. It:

• creates an interconnected European gas market providing alternative sources of supply and a competitive all-island gas market;

• provides a means of making natural gas available to a further 32% of Northern Ireland’s population on top of the existing 45%;

• enables advancement of a major, highly efficient power station project with the consequent business and employment opportunities;

• draws in, with the merchant risk power station project, over £200 million of private sector investment;

• enhances opportunities for inward investment especially in areas of high unemployment;

• introduces competition through fuel choice; and

• extends the use of a relatively clean fuel.

The base case for an economic appraisal is a "do-nothing" or "do-minimum" option. In the present situation, the base case factored in the need for an additional amount of electricity generation capacity in Northern Ireland. It assumed that this would be built in the east of Northern Ireland convenient to existing gas pipelines. The project was appraised against this option and had a negative net present value.

It is vital to consider that the economic appraisal base case assumes that there will be no extension of the gas industry. It is also crucial to reflect on the fact that there is no private sector commitment, other than that of the Electricity Supply Board International / Coolkeeragh Power, to build additional electricity generation capacity in Northern Ireland at market risk. In other words, the base case would not meet any of the strategic policy objectives nor would it deliver any of the outcomes set out above.

In September 2001 the Executive unanimously approved the project subject to certain limitations on grant support and State Aid approval.

(AQW 3986/01)

Sir Reg Empey: I refer to my answer to AQW 3985/01. The Executive unanimously approved the gas project on 20 September 2001.

(AQW 3987/01)

Sir Reg Empey: It is not known at this stage whether grant support will be required by the companies which have recently registered expressions of interest with the Director General of Gas for Northern Ireland for the development of distribution networks outside the Greater Belfast area. The next stage will be that these companies will be invited by the Director General to make formal applications for the purposes of developing distribution networks. This will be a lengthy process and is unlikely to be completed before the end of this year.

(AQW 4013/01)

Sir Reg Empey: The disposition of staff in Invest NI’s proposed outreach offices in Craigavon, Coleraine and Enniskillen has not yet been finalised. This is being considered in the context of the overall strengthening of the local delivery of Invest NI services and the engagement of the local offices in a wider range of business growth activities. The client facing staff in the local office network will be increased by some 50% over the next 12 months. The additional staff requirement will be met by a mixture of external recruitment and redeployment of staff from other functions.

Invest NI will keep the provision of services and support to their clients under continuous review

(AQW 4043/01)

Sir Reg Empey: An analysis completed approximately two years ago for my Department indicated that there was one potentially viable wind farm site in the waters off the North Coast. The seabed, in UK territorial waters, is an asset of the Crown and officials from my Department have been working with the Crown Estate since October of last year to agree the terms under which a 28 sq km site, in an area known as Tunes Plateau, would be leased as a wind farm development site.

The site in question is capable of generating enough electricity to supply approximately 170,000 homes and represents an investment by the private sector of some £200m. It is a particularly demanding site both in technological terms and also due to the environmental sensitivity of the surrounding area. It was therefore a shared priority to identify a highly competent developer with previous experience of assessing the environmental impact of wind farm developments. Negotiations have, as a result, been difficult and lengthy, but I am pleased to report that today (25 June 2002) the Crown Estate has agreed to execute a 12 month exclusivity agreement with a consortium comprising of B9 Energy (a local company), Renewable Energy Systems and PowerGen. All three companies are currently active in the renewable energy market in NI. During the next 12 months, the consortium will complete technical site investigations, a full environmental impact assessment and enter into public consultation on the specific proposals for developing the site. If at the end of this period the consortium decides to proceed with the development it will apply for consent to build the wind farm as required by Article 39 of the Electricity Order NI 1998 and execute a lease of the site with Crown Estates.

This is an important step forward in assessing the viability and impact of the Tunes proposal and also towards realising the Executive’s aims of developing a sustainable energy system for Northern Ireland.

(AQW 4044/01)

Sir Reg Empey: At June 2002 the Coleraine Borough Council area had a total of 1,249 hotel bedspaces certified by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, compared to 996 hotel bedspaces in 1997, which represents an increase of 25.40%.

(AQW 4130/01)

Sir Reg Empey: Information is not held in precisely the form requested. The numbers of civil servants in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment who are known to live in (a) the constituency of West Tyrone and (b) the constituencies of Foyle and East Londonderry who work in one of the four Belfast constituencies as at January 2002 are 1 and 13 respectively.

(AQW 4247/01)

Sir Reg Empey: Warners (UK) Ltd, with factories at Keady and Dromore, placed its entire workforce on 90 days protective notice from 14 June 2002. This decision was taken for commercial reasons. Like many other companies in the textile and clothing sectors, Warners have found it impossible to continue a viable manufacturing operation in the UK.

Before making the announcement to its workforce, the Company’s management met with staff in Invest NI. At this meeting the possibility of Invest NI intervention to save the NI operations and jobs was discussed, but it was made very clear that a corporate decision had already been made and there was no possibility of it being reviewed.

Through the Building Sustainable Prosperity programme and other European Funding, the councils have planned various initiatives, which have potential to impact on the employability of the workforce.

(AQW 4262/01)

Sir Reg Empey: The recent announcement of 200 further job losses at Nortel Networks, Monkstown is disappointing news. This is the local impact of a global announcement made by Nortel Networks Corporation on 29 May 2002 that a further 3,500 jobs were to go. These lay-offs continue to be as a result of the unprecedented downturn in the world-wide telecommunications market and are no reflection on the local workforce. Visibility in the telecommunications markets remains poor. I have spoken to top management in Canada to highlight my concerns and they have confirmed the importance of the Monkstown site to the Corporation’s strategic objectives. I have met with the local top management to provide assurances that we will continue to work closely with them to strengthen the relative position of Monkstown within the Corporation. As a result of the assistance already provided consolidation activities into Monkstown have reduced the overall impact of the most recent announcement.

The focus of Invest NI’s Foreign Direct Investment Conference earlier this month was the development of regional propositions. Representatives from East Antrim participated. The workshops included crystallising the suitability and attractiveness of the region as an inward investment location and exploring ways to market it.

(AQW 4003/01)

The Minister of the Environment (Mr Nesbitt): My Department’s plans for waste management are set out in the Northern Ireland Waste Management Strategy published in March 2000. The first priority in the Strategy for achieving more sustainable waste management is waste reduction.

The finalised Waste Management Plans of District Councils will be critical to achieving the aims and targets of the Strategy. My Department expects to receive final draft Plans from the three Council Partnership Groups by 28 June, following the recent public consultation period. These Plans will set out how Councils expect to reduce the amount of waste going for disposal.

My Department has also introduced Regulations placing obligations on certain businesses to recover and recycle specified tonnages of packaging waste. Companies which are obligated under the Regulations must register with the Department, so that progress towards the recovery and recycling targets can be monitored.

Guidelines to help companies to measure, manage and report on the environmental impact of their wastes, in order to improve their waste management performance, have been produced by my Department’s Environment and Heritage Service.

My Department has also been monitoring development of, and contributing as appropriate to the UK negotiating line on, a number of new and imminent EC Directives that will require manufacturers to increase the proportion of recyclable components in their products, in order to minimise the waste generated. These Directives will be progressively transposed into Northern Ireland legislation.

In order to effect an attitudinal shift in the wider community towards waste issues my Department launched its "Wake up to Waste" public awareness Campaign in February and also introduced in April a ‘Wake up to Waste for Schools’ programme together with a complementary website, offering interactive games and information.

In addition I recently launched, in conjunction with Invest Northern Ireland, a Waste Management Industry Fund of £1m in this financial year, to assist projects which will help stimulate the markets for recycling and recovery of materials.

(AQW 4045/01)

Mr Nesbitt: The average waiting time for a vehicle test during the current year 2002/03 is 24 days.

(AQW 4046/01)

Mr Nesbitt: The information requested is shown below.

The figures include private cars, motorcycles and private buses.

(AQW 4047/01)

Mr Nesbitt: My Department’s Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency currently tries to offer all vehicle tests within a maximum of 33 days. Current capacity pressures in the Agency from recruitment difficulties and the closure of test centres on a rolling basis for re-equipment mean that this is not possible at present. In these circumstances it would not be practicable to introduce a maximum waiting time. However action is being taken as a matter of priority to reduce appointment waiting times generally.

(AQW 4048/01)

(a) There are 15 vehicle test centres located throughout Northern Ireland. Vehicle owners can choose to take their test at any of these locations. It is not therefore possible to provide a breakdown of the population served by each test centre. However, the following information on the number of tests carried out at each centre may be helpful.

* Centre closed for 3 months for installation of new equipment.

(b) In Great Britain MOT tests are carried out by private garages, which usually also do servicing and repair work. There are approximately 19,000 garages offering the MOT test under the supervision of the Vehicle Inspectorate of the Department for Transport. Accordingly MOT tests tend to be more readily available to vehicle owners. However, it should be noted that the maximum fee that can be charged in Great Britain is some 50% higher than the current fee in Northern Ireland. Moreover the complete separation of testing from servicing and repair, as in Northern Ireland tends to be the practice in other EU countries.

(AQW 4049/01)

Mr Nesbitt: MOT tests are carried out at the following locations in Northern Ireland:

(AQW 4081/01)

Mr Nesbitt: The EC Recommendation on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) was formally adopted by Member States on 30 May 2002. The Recommendation asks Member States to undertake a national stocktaking of legislation, institutions and stakeholders involved in the management of the coastal zone and, based on this, to develop a national strategy or strategies to implement ICZM. Member States are also asked to report to the Commission on the experience in implementation of the Recommendation 45 months after its adoption.

My officials are examining the Recommendation to ascertain the possible implications for Northern Ireland. In addition they are liasing with colleagues in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and with the other devolved administrations as plans for implementation of the Recommendation within the United Kingdom are developed and in particular as the stocktaking referred to above is taken forward.

(AQW 4082/01)

Mr Nesbitt: The table below shows the number of watercourse pollution incidents investigated in the last three years by the Environment and Heritage Service and the number of cases brought to the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Magherafelt and Cookstown District Council areas.

(AQW 4083/01)

Mr Nesbitt: The table below shows the number of watercourse pollution incidents investigated in the last three years by the Environment and Heritage Service and the number of cases brought to the Director of Public Prosecutions in the Magherafelt and Cookstown District Council areas.

(AQW 4090/01)

Mr Nesbitt: The main way of protecting peat bogs of European importance is through their designation as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the European Commission’s Habitats Directive. To date, my Department has submitted to the Commission nine active raised bogs and eight sites containing blanket bog, as part of the UK list of candidate SACs.

I understand that the Commission indicated very recently that it regards the UK list of SACs for raised bogs to be insufficient and that further sites may be required in Northern Ireland. I await confirmation of this decision. I would emphasise that I remain fully committed to taking the necessary steps to protect the best examples in Northern Ireland of this important habitat.

(AQW 4107/01)

Mr Nesbitt: The current UK list of candidate Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) includes 43 sites in Northern Ireland, including Lough Melvin which has Atlantic Salmon listed as a qualifying feature. My Department has acknowledged, however, that there may be grounds for additional sites here for Atlantic Salmon. For this reason, my Department’s Environment and Heritage Service is investigating the River Foyle and its principal tributaries with a view to bringing forward one or more sites for consideration as candidate SACs.

I am aware that the European Commission has very recently considered the lists of SACs submitted by Member States in the Atlantic Region. The UK authorities conceded that more needed to be done in relation to Salmon in Northern Ireland and I understand that the Commission will confirm this when it publishes the agreed conclusions of the meeting.

(AQW 4132/01)

Mr Nesbitt: Information is not held in precisely the form requested. The numbers of civil servants in the Department of Environment who are known to live in (a) the constituency of West Tyrone and (b) the constituencies of Foyle and East Londonderry as at January 2002 are 9 and 20 respectively.

(AQW 4137/01)

Mr Nesbitt: Hedges and trees do not constitute development in planning terms and there is no planning control over the planting of hedges or trees, or their height, unless specifically provided for, or restricted by, a condition in a planning permission.

Thus there are no powers to enforce against the planting, or the height, of hedges or trees except where they contravene the terms of a planning approval, for example, where they would encroach on land cleared for visibility splays as part of a planning approval for an access.

No enforcement action has been taken to curb the height of trees or hedgerows.