Wed.4/2/98
_Sinn Fein Submission_
_Liaison Sub-Committee on Confidence Building_
Building the Economy - Building the Peace
Sinn Fein views the promotion of economic and social development in Ireland as a key and integral part of the peace process. It is clear that economic development underpins the peace process and cant help to consolidate agreement on political structures in Ireland.
Sinn Fein's overall objectives for economic policy in Ireland are:
- to provide sustainable and dignified livelihood for all its citizens;
- to develop economic resources, human and material, to their fullest; and
- to create an economic base which reflects the social and cultural values of all the Irish people and which fulfils their material needs and aspirations.
In essence, Sinn Fein's vision is of a society that grants economic justice to all its people. Everyone, irrespective of their background, should be able to gain meaningful, well-paid, long-term employment jobs that provide genuine security and fair conditions. Everyone should have a meaningful role to play in the economy, particularly at the local level.
These objectives will only be achieved by eliminating unemployment and poverty, developing more fully the industrial base and generating higher levels of income and wealth for the benefit of all the people in Ireland. In this context, Sinn Fein attaches particular importance to the generation of sustainable growth; the need for mutually reinforcing private and public sector activity in the economy, the provision of education and training for all the workforce; the need for extensive workforce participation and democracy; the creation of genuine equality of opportunity for all; and the development of environmentally friendly economic activity.
Sinn Fein's overall strategic approach to the economy encompasses:
- to provide sustainable and dignified livelihoods for all its citizens;
- to develop economic resources, human and material, to their fullest; and
- to create an economic base which reflects the social and cultural values of all the Irish people and which fulfils their material needs and aspirations.
In essence, Sinn Fein's vision is of a society that grants economic justice to all its people. Everyone, irrespective of their background, should able to gain meaningful, well-paid, long-term employment in jobs that provide genuine security and fair conditions. Everyone should have a meaningful role to play in the economy, particularly at the local level.
These objectives will only be achieved by eliminating unemployment and poverty, developing more fully the industrial base and generating higher levels of income and wealth for the benefit of all the people in Ireland. In this context, Sinn Fein attaches particular importance to the generation of sustainable growth; the need for mutually reinforcing private and public sector activity in the economy, the provision of education and training for all the workforce; the need for extensive workplace participation and democracy, the creation of genuine equality of opportunity for all; and the development of environmentally friendly economic activity.
Sinn Fein's overall strategic approach to the economy encompasses:
- The creation of a truly all-Ireland economy;
- the transformation of the war economy of the north into a productive and developed peace-time economy;
- the elimination of the economic distortions created by partition;
- the social and economic harmonisation of regions and social groups in Ireland; and
- the introduction and promotion of genuine economic democracy;
The Economic Problem
It is widely recognised that the Irish economy, particularly in the northern Six Counties and the border region, suffers from a range of economic and social problems. The range and depth of these problems by a number of indicators:
- Unemployment in the Six Counties officially stands at just over 60,200, 7.8 per cent of the workfoce. It is commonly accepted, however, that because of the ways in which the figures are massaged by the British government that the official count of unemployment understates the true level by tens of thousands.
In the border counties the figure is higher still. In the 26 counties the live register figure stands at 254,000. Like the Six Counties the figures masks over 40,000 people employed on make work schemes. Across the island over 350,000 people are unemployed.
- Not only is the overall level of unemployment high in the Six Counties, but the number who have been without work for over a year accounts for 50 per cent of the unemployed (45 per cent in the twenty-six counties) while almost one in five have been out of work for more than five years.
- Unemployment among Catholic men is around two and a half times higher than amongst Protestant men in the Six Counties. That this has continued to be the case for over twenty years highlights the ineffectiveness of British anti-discrimination measures and legislation.
- The continuing haemorrhage of the population has been endemic, with an average of around 7,000 people emigrating each year from the Six Counties over the past two decades. Again, in the border counties the loss of population, especially those of working age, has been even higher. In the 26 Counties Official figures show that during the 1980s over 250,000 people emigrated, 49,000 in 1989 alone. Emigration from rural areas is particularly high with around 5,000 people leaving rural Ireland each year during the 1990s.
- The incidence of poverty in the Six Counties and the border areas is severe. In 1995 one third of all households had weekly incomes below £125 with 19 per cent of all weekly incomes coming from social security. The proportion of people living below the 'poverty line' is higher than in Britain, as is the degree of income inequality between the most highly paid and the lowest paid.
Over 800,000 people in the 26 Counties are in receipt of social welfare payments with a further 600,000 dependants relying on these payments. This means that at around 40 per cent of the Irish population exists on subsistence incomes and are effectively living in poverty.
- Having been at the centre of the industrial world at the time of partition, less than one in five of the workforce in the Six Counties is now employed in manufacturing industry. Not only is the industrial base small, but that which remains is lacking in competitiveness and concentrated in declining sectors. Productivity is low (around 80 per cent of that in Britain - itself a poor performer in world terms) and industry is heavily dependent on high levels of public subsidy (around one-third of all new investment costs by industry).
- The underlying weakness of the Six-County economy is highlighted by the size of the subvention from the British taxpayer that is required to keep it running. The difference between what is spent by the British government in the Six Counties and what is raised in taxation another public revenue currently stands at around £4 billion, an extraordinary one-third of total GDP in the north. A substantial proportion of the subvention directly reflects the militarised and unproductive nature of the economy with huge sums spent each year on the RUC, the British army etc. In other words, the Six-County economy is kept artificially afloat by a huge annual inflow of public money that masks an economic situation of fundamental unsustainability.
Budgetary cuts
In the current budgetary year 1997-98, the British Government has earmarked £8.227 billion for spending in the Six Counties. These expenditure plans were in large part formulated by the previous Conservative administration. These expenditure plans were in large part formulated by the previous Conservative administration. These expenditure totals involve a 1.5% cut in the 1996-97 totals, a cut which the Northern Ireland Economic Council described last November as being disproportionate to budgetary cuts imposed in Britain.
These cuts are disappointing considering the need to invest resources in the Six-County economy. They are doubly disappointing because the spending plans formulated for 1998-1999 by the Tories have also being accepted by the New Labour administration without significant change. What is needed is a substantial and immediate redistribution of spending away from servicing the huge cost of the British war economy into the underfunded education, health, social services and economic development sectors.
On a more hopeful note New Labour's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown has announced a Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) which he maintained will 'take nothing for granted'. Sinn Fein believes this CSR must take into account the discriminatory and inequitable nature of NIO spending policies.
For example the CSR must analyse the spending allocations across the 26 District Councils to ascertain whether there is equality of funding. This CSR should also investigate the disparities clearly visible to nationalists in infrastructural development programmes such as housing and road construction.
Another issue that must be included in the CSR is the total military spending by the British Government in the Six Counties. The published Exchequer figures for the Six Counties show only a proportion of total military spending by the British Government in the Six Counties.
The CSR should be empowered to investigate total military spending including not only the RUC budget but that of the British Army and MI5. Spending proposals from MI5 published in 1995 showed that 44% of their £150 million expenditure was taken up with countering IRA threats.
If the British Government are really committed to building a lasting peace they have a role to play in transforming the structure of the war economy in Ireland and that includes scaling down their military spending and diverting funds to projects and programmes which will aid those communities most affected by the conflict in Ireland.
The reasons for such poor economic performance over a sustained period of time are, of course, complex. From Sinn Fein's point of view, it is necessary to look at the political and economic history of Ireland and, in particular, the colonial and oppressive nature of British rule, to explain such deep-economic underdevelopment. While it was in the interests of Britain to develop the industrial base in the north of Ireland (centred in the main quite narrowly around Belfast) in the nineteenth century with shipbuilding, textiles and heavy engineering, and at the expense of the rest of Ireland, this did not continue after partition in 1921. The economic history of the Six Counties has never been anything but one failure and underdevelopment.
Partition itself was an important debilitating factor in the way it artificially divided the Irish economy, compounding a state of underdevelopment in what was already an economy lacking coherence and integration. This effect was felt particularly badly in the broader counties - a situation that continues to this day. On top of this was added the openly sectarian nature of the Six-County state itself that systematically discriminated against and disadvantaged the nationalist population.
More recently in the last twenty-five years, political and military resistance to British rule and oppression has debilitated the economy to a significant effect. In this historical context, it is difficult to imagine an economic situation less conductive to economic and social development. The political and economic legacy of colonialism, partition, systematic discrimination and political and military conflict has still to be overcome. Yet, if economic and social development is to occur then it will only be achieved if that legacy is tackled.
The failures of Tar getting Social Need
The British Government paper on Economic and Social Development stresses the role of their targeting social need initiative. TSN is according to the NIO "an important feature of the Government's strategy to promote equality of opportunity and equity of treatment".
However in July 1996 when the NIO was questioned by An Phoblacht as to how were TSN Social Need policies were implemented they were told this was "harder to measure". There were "no specific figures" even though it was one of the British Government's "Spending priorities". In fact it was difficult to find out which NIO department was responsible for implementing TSN policy. An Phoblact was told that the department of Economic Development were "not the guardians of TSN". It was not within their policy remit.
The NIO's central press office told them that it was not in their policy area. Their concerns were only "politics and security". Instead they were sent to the Department of Health and Social services.
They told An Phoblacht that Targeting Social Need "might be" their area, they weren't sure. It could be they were told that they shared the responsibility for implementing TSN with the department of Environment.
Eventually after further calls it was found that TSN was actually funded through the Department of Finance and Personnel and that it was the Central Community Relations Unit (CCRU) who implemented TSN.
It was the CCRU who published in 1996 a controversial study on unemployment ratios in the Six Counties. The study by Graham Gudgin and Richard Breen concluded that religion was "not a valid measure" for distinguishing between unemployment ratios in the Six Counties even though Catholics are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than Protestants.
However the truth is that the CCRU only lays down the policy guidelines, no one is really responsible for implementation and monitoring. One NIO briefing note puts it all in perspective. It came with a warning stating "Avoid putting a monetary value on TSN policy" because "it is difficult to identify all the TSN relevant expenditure in the DHSS".
