SDLP Foyle MLA Sinead McLaughlin
The Foyle MLA was speaking after the new Head of the Civil Service, Jayne Brady, last week told the Committee of The Executive Office that she was unable to include the tackling of regional inequality in government priorities, as this would have to be subject to policy direction from relevant ministers.
Ms Brady said: “Ultimately, policy decisions, including subregional versus regional approaches, are, from the start to the end, decisions for Ministers.”
Said Mrs McLaughline: “We have serious inequalities across the North. As an MLA for Foyle, I know only too well how this impacts on Derry and Strabane – with high levels of unemployment, low pay and educational disadvantage.
“But it is not just Foyle that is suffering. A new report from Ireland’s National Economic & Social Development Office reveals the destructive impact of those inequalities.
“You are more than three times more likely to have no qualifications if you live in Derry, Strabane, Fermanagh, the Causeway Coast, Mid-Ulster or Belfast than if you live in Lisburn and Castlereagh.
“While the employment rate in Lisburn and Castlereagh is 67%, it is 53% in the Causeway Coast area.
“And while particular parts of the North suffer inequalities, the whole of the North suffers in comparison with other places because of the Executive’s self-imposed limits on the number of students allowed to go to university here.
“While 40.6% of the NI population have a degree, the figure is 44.7% across the UK as a whole, it is 47.3% in the South and 59.6% in London.
“The DUP-Sinn Féin Joint First Ministers need to get a grip on the situation, along with the economy and education ministers, to embed policies of regional equality into the functions of government.
“It is entirely wrong that your life chances are impaired just because you were born in one place rather than another.”
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