Debate contribution: Tackling the Financial and Societal Impacts of Division
Debate contribution by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 25 March 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Tackling the Financial and Societal Impacts of Division
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4866515
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I welcome the fact that the motion places a focus on the cost of sectarian division. It is, however, unfortunate that its scope has been defined in one-dimensional terms. We need to be honest. The reality is that sectarianism cannot be properly assessed without reference to the partition and division of the island and the associated economic and financial costs and repercussions. In the North, the costs of division are, indeed, evidenced in separate education systems, segregated housing, social disadvantage and the disproportionate diversion of police resources in response to incidents of sectarianism and racial hate crime. The financial cost of community divisions in the region are a structural by-product of partition. The creation of two states on this island has led to a duplication of public services and systems. The existence of two economies and divergent tax systems has created obvious impediments to the global marketing of our island. That is why so many economists and commentators have concluded that Irish unity will generate significant economic net benefits and an overall increase in GDP. Economic productivity and shared prosperity will be maximised by promoting the benefits of an integrated island economy with a highly skilled workforce, one tourism product and harmonised health, education and third-level education systems. Of course, we must be united in our efforts to end community division. However, the motion has further weakened its focus by ignoring the adverse reality of the North's dependence on the British Exchequer, which refuses our power-sharing Executive access to the very financial resources that are required to deliver sustainable public services. That brings me to my final point. Any strategy, political or otherwise, to effectively address the cost of division in this region cannot ignore the elephant in the room, which is the legacy and effect of successive British Governments' economic and political policy towards the North. Previous Tory, and now Labour, austerity policies continue to deny our power-sharing Executive the fiscal and financial capacity that they need to repurpose the delivery of public services. I agree that we need a strategic discussion on and plan for fully eradicating the root causes of division and the ongoing sectarian fault lines in our society, but I strongly submit that that needs to be set within a framework that looks beyond the limits of partition, addresses the process of planning and preparing for constitutional change and the achievement of an inclusive, tolerant national democracy.
402 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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