A member of the North's Equality Commission has accused the British
government of failing Catholics who still experience substantially higher
unemployment and poverty rates than Protestants.
Una Gillespie was speaking in advance of a major conference on Tuesday to
discuss 30 years of fair employment legislation in the North. She said that
while advances had been made, Catholics still experienced significant
inequality and discrimination. She called for more economic investment in
nationalist areas.
Catholics are twice as likely to be unemployed as Protestants, a figure
which has remained virtually unchanged for three decades and the latest
official statistics show Catholics are still suffering considerable economic
disadvantage, Ms Gillespie said.
Sixteen per cent of adult Catholics live in households where no-one works,
compared to 11% of Protestants, according to the figures published
by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister last month.
More than half of Protestants live in households where everyone works,
compared to just over a third of Catholics. Almost six per cent of Catholics
of working age are unemployed, compared to three per cent of Protestants.
Although there has been a slight improvement in Catholic male unemployment
rates vis-à-vis the Protestant equivalent, this has been negated by a
widening gap between Catholic and Protestant female unemployment rates.
Ms Gillespie, a former Sinn Féin councillor, is co-ordinator of the West
Belfast Economic Forum. In September, she was appointed to the Equality
Commission which is charged with tackling discrimination in the North.
The Commission should be given increased powers and resources, she said:
"Religious inequality in the workforce isn't a thing of the past.
Legislative changes might mean the blatant discrimination of previous years
has decreased but we are still a long way short of equality.
"The British government is not delivering on the equality agenda it promised
in the Good Friday Agreement. It is failing all working-class people but it
is disproportionately failing Catholics and women."
Catholics, particularly males, remain under-represented in the private
sector generally, district councils, and security-related jobs. Protestants
are increasingly under-represented in the health and education segments of
the public sector.
