asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish figures to show the extent to which manufacturing production in Northern Ireland has declined since 1973.

Since 1973, the yearly average of the monthly index of manufacturing production for Northern Ireland has been as follows:

	1975=100
Year	Index
1973	111
1974	103
1975	100
1976	102
1977	101
1978	101
1979	100*
* Estimate based on the first eleven months of 1979.

Expressed in percentage terms, the level of manufacturing output fell by 9 per cent. during the period 1973–1979. Over the same period, the number of employees in manufacturing employment is estimated to have fallen by 15·5 per cent.