Six-Cos. Inequality Remains -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Sun, Jun 06 2010, 11:27:13 PDT
Author: www.ia-pl.org
Subject: Six-Cos. Inequality Remains

Structural Inequality Remains Entrenched in the Six Counties

31/05/10

The publication of Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency�s
report on multiple deprivation last Wednesday [May 26] has confirmed the
inequality that remains at the heart of the Six-County state.

The report looked at deprivation in seven domains across the Six
Counties� 890 Super Output Areas [SOAs] � electoral wards broken down
into areas with an average population of 2,000 people.

The seven domains were income deprivation; employment deprivation;
health deprivation and disability; education, skills and training
deprivation; proximity to services; living environment; and crime and
disorder.

Unsurprisingly, the most poverty-stricken areas in the Six Counties also
came first in terms of multiple deprivation. The �Whiterock 2� area,
representing the Ballymurphy and Springhill estates in west Belfast,
topped the list. This area is also recorded as having the highest
incidence of employment deprivation � i.e. unemployment � at 42 per cent
as well as the highest incidence of income deprivation � the number of
people receiving some form of income support � at 90 per cent.

Contrast this with the �Wallace Park 1� area in Lisburn, which was
ranked the least deprived area in the Six Counties. This area has only a
two per cent incidence of employment deprivation and a three per cent
incidence of income deprivation.

Of course, the Six Counties being the Six Counties, it also bears
mentioning that �Whiterock 2� is recorded as 98.8 per cent �from a
Catholic community background�, whereas, in �Wallace Park 1�, this
figure stands at 16.7 per cent.

A look at the 100 areas most afflicted by multiple deprivation reveals
that 72 of them are nationalist communities. Sixty-five of the top 100
are areas in which people �from a Catholic community background� make up
75 per cent or more of the population.

Of these 100 areas, 28 are in the constituency of West Belfast alone,
including six of the 10 most deprived. 21 are in North Belfast, and 16
are in the Foyle constituency. Not a single SOA from the more affluent
unionist strongholds of North Down, South Antrim or Strangford appears
in the 100 most deprived areas.

Commenting on the publication, R�na� Ginear�lta �ir�g� Breand�n Mac
Cionnaith said: �This report reveals the extent to which working class
communities in the Six Counties, and working class nationalist
communities in particular, are denied the necessities for living a full
and happy existence.

�There has been no structural or radical change to the make-up of the
Six County state over the last two decades; there is no such thing as
the �new Northern Ireland�. What we have is a state that is incapable of
meeting the basic needs of its working class citizens and a state that
will, for as long as it remains in existence, treat the nationalist
working class as second class citizens.�

Mac Cionnaith continued: �This report should encourage people to reflect
on the kind of society in which we live. Unfortunately, the Tory-led
government in Westminster and its Stormont administration are hell-bent
on introducing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts in the
immediate future, with more attacks on vital services on the horizon.

�People must act to stop these cuts and to defend what their communities
have at present, lacking though it is in many ways. The Tory axemen
must be beaten back, or we will be condemning our children to
generations of even worse deprivation. Now is the time to do that.�

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