'No evidence' of Catholic job discrimination

There is no evidence for nationalist claims that discrimination is taking place in Northern Ireland, a former Stormont Minister claimed today.

Ulster Unionist MLA Dermot Nesbitt, who served as Environment Minister in the devolved Executive, claimed the method used for calculating the unemployment differential between Catholics and Protestants was flawed.

“I accept that there is a widespread and continued perception in the continued existence of discrimination, justified by reference to the unemployment differential,” the South Down MLA said.

“But what of the evidence?

“The government’s human rights body in 1987 stated that in every jurisdiction of which it was aware, two procedures were considered essential: monitoring the composition of the workforce as a whole; and monitoring of recruitment and promotion.

“Since 1990 these procedures were progressively introduced. What has been the outcome?

“Applications and appointees indicate no discrimination or lack of equality of opportunity against the Catholic community.

“Rather, based on the assumption that all applications were similar in merit and there was equality of opportunity, a statistical test of significance shows that for a period of time the proportion of Catholics appointed to the public sector was much higher in favour of Catholics than would have been expected, compared with the one year where the proportion favoured Protestants.

“This does not necessarily indicate discrimination in favour of Catholics but it does suggest that an explanation is required.”

The unemployment differential is defined by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) as a ratio of Catholic to Protestant unemployment rates.

It is calculated by dividing the unemployment rate of the group with the higher rate of unemployment by that of the group with the lower rate.

If the Catholic unemployment rate, for example, is 12% and the Protestant unemployment rate 6%, the differential is two.

Mr Nesbitt claimed that the way the ratio was calculated meant government action to tackle Catholic joblessness could not have any meaningful impact on reducing the unemployment differential.

He argued that the differential failed to take into account population changes, with a higher number of Catholics coming on to the labour market.