Northern Ireland

E

Currency and Banking

Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom, has the pound sterling as legal tender (£0.51 sterling equalled US$1; early 2007).

F

Commerce and Trade

About 80 per cent of Northern Ireland’s external trade, including 50 per cent of manufactured goods, is with the rest of Britain. A large percentage of the exports to the rest of Britain are transhipped to other countries. Northern Ireland exports linen goods, textiles, clothing, machinery, and food, notably meat, potatoes, and dairy products. Imports consist chiefly of raw materials and metals, fuel, food, and an assortment of manufactured goods.

G

Labour

Industrial decline, compounded by the Troubles, helped to give Northern Ireland the highest unemployment rate of any part of the United Kingdom during the late 1970s and 1980s. Job creation has improved in the 1990s; while in mid-1994 the unemployment rate in Northern Ireland was still around 13 per cent, compared with 9.2 per cent in the United Kingdom as a whole, in 1997 the rate dropped to around 9 per cent, based on the number of unemployed benefit claimants.

The system of labour relations in Northern Ireland is based on the same principles as that of the rest of Britain. Trade unions in the province are represented by the Northern Ireland committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). Most trade union members belong to unions affiliated to the ICTU; the majority also belong to unions based in Great Britain, which are affiliated to the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

H

Transport

Northern Ireland has about 24,236 km (15,060 mi) of roads, including 113 km (70 mi) of motorways. The Northern Ireland Railways Company provides passenger services on 357 km (222 mi) of railway track. Daily ferry and cargo shipping services, and airline services connect Northern Ireland with the rest of the United Kingdom. Passenger ferry services operate to Belfast; cargo services operate from Belfast, Larne, Warrenpoint, and Londonderry (Derry). A new port at Londonderry (Derry) opened in 1993.

I

Communications

Northern Ireland has three daily newspapers: the Belfast Telegraph, the Irish News, and the News Letter. In the late 1980s the dailies, published in Belfast, had a combined daily circulation of about 200,000. There are a number of political publications representing the various factions. Around 86 per cent of households have a telephone and 373,900 own a television.