asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish in the Official Report the reasons which led him to reject the rescue plan for the Northern Ireland gas industry produced by the Northern Ireland gas employers board and gas trade union group joint working group.

The rescue plan proposed by the gas industry joint working group did not provide the basis for a viable gas industry. The capital and operating costs in the plan were seriously underestimated and it failed to overcome the price and market problems which led to cancellation of the Government's own Kinsale project last September.