Caitriona Ruane MLA - Access to Employment - motion 172
Discrimination is alive and in the north of Ireland.
Let no one
be under any illusions about the serious problems with the civil service in
the Six Counties. It remains a huge barrier to equality - a bastion of
intransigence.
At senior level in every department in the north,
Catholics are under represented.
Within the NIO, the most
powerful of the departments, less than 1 in 4 of core departmental staff are
Catholic.
Out of over 1,800 staff ˆ 1 is based in my own
constituency of South Down, 1 in Fermanagh South Tyrone, 3 in West Belfast
yet over 1,400 in East, North and South Belfast.
This is not
without consequence.
In many key areas - on issues such as inward
investment ˆ there are clear failures, clear evidence that the patterns and
legacy of discrimination are not being tackled.
At a senior level
there are many who are actively working against change and equality.
An
analysis of Invest NI patterns of investment shows that the six most income
and employment deprived council areas together- Strabane, Derry, Omagh,
Moyle, Cookstown and Newry and Mourne- get less financial assistance and
will receive less planned investment than wealthy South Belfast.
Irish
citizens cannot even apply for certain jobs - only this month Sinn Féin
highlighted the decision of the Six County Public Prosecution Service to ban
Irish citizens from applying for legal posts.
This is clearly
unacceptable, it is contrary to the Good Friday Agreement and nothing less
than blatant discrimination.
The British government know they
must remove the ban on Irish citizens from senior civil service posts.
They
know that the under representation of Catholics in the senior levels of the
civil service must be tackled.
They need to right this wrong.
This
is why inequality and discrimination continue in the North. The civil
service is part of the problem.
Sinn Féin will not tolerate
discrimination. We fought against in 1905, in 1921, 1969, and we will fight
it in. I want to commend motion 172.