Nationalists and unionists in census row

As the political parties in Northern Ireland pored over the census results, unionists and nationalists clashed tonight over the significance of the religious breakdown shown in the figures.

This is what they said:

* DUP Assembly member Edwin Poots said: “While the raw percentages may show an increase in the Catholic population, it would be a major mistake to extrapolate the information to prove that we will soon be living in a United Ireland.

“In 20 years we could still have the situation that around 44% of the population will be Catholic, so it is not unreasonable to suggest that we can look forward to a further half century of being part of the United Kingdom.”

* Sinn Fein national chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said: “I don’t know of anyone who was arguing that these census figures would actually provide the evidence that constitutional change was about to happen tomorrow.

“But I think it does provide undeniable evidence that such a process of change is under way and it is incumbent on all of us as political leaders to deal with that now, not to ignore it, not to deny it, not to bury our heads in the sand, but to draw confidence and strength from the figures as they exist.”

* Dermot Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist Party said: “This type of sectarian headcount must end. We need mature debate, not knee-jerk number-crunching with a sectarian calculator.”

His party colleague, David Burnside MP, said: “I feel that unionists have nothing to fear and should take comfort from these statistics.

“They should be more confident that Northern Ireland’s position as part of the United Kingdom is reaffirmed and I would suggest that speculation from other political parties on our future is now at an end.”

* SDLP North Belfast MLA Alban Maginness said: “It is by no means certain that this growth in the nationalist vote will lead to the United Ireland that the SDLP is committed to seeking.

“It is the SDLP’s position, in line with the Good Friday Agreement, that there will be a united Ireland if and when the majority votes for one and voters in the south agree.”

* Alliance Party leader David Ford said: “We need to inject a degree of realism into this hyped debate, as it is increasingly obvious that there is a sizeable proportion of people in Northern Ireland who do not want to be classified as either Catholic or Protestant.

“Government policy is based largely on how it caters for nationalists and unionists, not the community as a whole, and that needs to change.”

* Monica McWilliams of the Women’s Coalition said: “Speculation about a sectarian number count and the outcome of a border poll at some point in the future has been unhelpful in building relations between the communities.

“We need to concentrate on making the current arrangements under the Agreement work.”

* Northern Ireland Office Minister Ian Pearson said the census provides a wealth of data to inform policy development, monitoring and evaluation.

“Ministers will be considering the results in detail to inform how we can best meet the needs of everyone in Northern Ireland,” he added.

Historian Eamon Phoenix said the figures held special interest for Belfast: “The population of Belfast has been transformed since the early 60s because traditionally from the early 20th century Catholics formed 24% of the population, mainly coralled in west and north Belfast.

“Now we find it’s almost 50-50, something which was suggested heavily by election statistics in recent years.”