Member

On the question of funding for heating oil in Northern Ireland, it is clear that the proportion of funding that was supplied to Northern Ireland out of the £53 million was not based on a per capita application for the whole of the United Kingdom. It was based substantially on the understanding that the need for that underpinning was far greater in Northern Ireland, because of the particular situation there concerning the very high percentage of the total homes in Northern Ireland that use heating oil, rather than the much smaller percentage in Scotland, England and Wales. The Northern Ireland Executive again have the leeway to decide how to distribute and what to do with that particular scheme, but it is based on the very high usage in Northern Ireland. I understand that the Northern Ireland Executive have added a considerable sum of money to that £17 million to deal fully with the situation in Northern Ireland as we find it.