If You Ask Me
with Newton Emerson

Conor Murphy, the minister for regional development, was hard at work in the U.S. last week urging Wall Street financiers and Irish-American business leaders to invest in Northern Ireland.

Mr Murphy told his high- powered hosts that they can create the jobs that will end deprivation and inequality. There's just one problem with the minister's plea. Northern Ireland is coming down with jobs.

Our unemployment rate is the lowest in the UK and lower than the U.S. We are drawing in migrants in unprecedented numbers, proving that there is plenty of work, and many of those migrants are filling jobs that don't even require English, proving that there is plenty of entry level work.This doesn't mean that deprivation and inequality don't exist, of course, but it does mean that they can’t be blamed on a shortage of jobs.

Sinn Fein is not unaware of this hole in its argument, which is why party equality spokesperson Martina Anderson stayed at home to finesse the argument with a statement on economic inactivity.

There are 272,000 economically inactive people in Northern Ireland, she told the assembly due to “structurally interlink ed”factors like underinvestment, patchy procurement and historical discrimination.

These are complicated issues but that only underscores the fallacy of blaming simple lack of work. Some available jobs may well be unappealing and some may be in the wrong place, but in a time of full and fair employment it is difficult to paint economic inactivity as a widespread injustice - except to the taxpayer.

So what can Sinn Fein do? Fortunately, its trans-Atlantic friends have plenty of answers. America has enjoyed remarkable results in reducing economic inactivity. Bill Clinton's “Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act”, passed in 1996, has been the most successful welfare reform programme in history.

Claimants were limited to five years of entitlement in their lifetimes and welfare budgets were locally devolved, delivering practical measures on childcare, transport and training - all supported by business and industry.

This is how Conor Murphy's wealthy friends really see the problem he is asking them to solve. Irish-Americans must be surprised to learn that Sinn Fein, like all the Stormont parties, failed to request the devolution of social security powers.

But now that Stormont is about to spend a year arguing over policing and justice, it can surely spend at least as long seeking other powers that are surely at least as important. The ideas, the contacts and the political opportunities are all there. The question for Sinn Fein is, does it really want to tackle deprivation and inequality? Or does it just want something to moan about?

If You Ask Me Archive