A Northern Ireland MP has questioned why a groundbreaking Holocaust education project is not available to pupils there.

The Holocaust Educational Trust’s “Lessons from Auschwitz”, which takes teenagers to visit the Nazi concentration camps and asks them to share their experiences with their peers back home, has been running since 1998. More than 17,000 students have taken part.

In that time only one trip has taken place involving participants from Northern Ireland.

The scheme was initially funded by the Treasury, but funding was subsequently transferred to the educational budgets of the individual devolved bodies. While money has been made available in England, Wales and Scotland, no funding has been allocated by the Northern Ireland Executive.

Speaking at a parliamentary session convened to mark Holocaust Memorial Day last Sunday, Social Democratic and Labour MP Mark Durkan said: “If there is one place that could benefit in a particularly poignant way from learning lessons from Auschwitz about prejudice, it is Northern Ireland” .