Member

I appreciate the isolation of the Scottish islands, and it is perfectly reasonable that those communities should be exempted—I am not saying that they should not be. But if we go back into the Government’s own document and look at the contribution of the different regions to emissions, the fact is that Scotland produces between six and seven times more emissions per person than we do in Northern Ireland. If the rule is, as the noble Earl, Lord Russell, said, that the polluter pays, that is a fair enough argument. Let the polluter pay. How do you stand on the fact that the Scottish islands produce proportionately seven times more than the people of Northern Ireland? What is fair about that?