15 April 1999 Edition
Broken promises in West Belfast
``Peace - Jobs - Opportunity for all'' proclaimed one of the banners that adorned Mackies Engineering plant for the visit of Bill Clinton in December 1995. That was back when people used to still talk openly about the peace dividend. Now, nearly four years on, promises of a peace dividend for the Irish economy and particularly for Six-County nationalists have been glossed over.
A recently published report by the West Belfast Economic Forum (WBEF) shows that the number of Industrial Development Board-assisted jobs in West Belfast have fallen by 14% over the past four years. The report, titled Jobs or Just Promises, also finds that in an area where the population is overwhelmingly nationalist, only 48% of the workers in IDB-backed jobs in the area were Catholic.
Four years of failure
Looking across the Six Counties, you might at first glance think that the economic environment had substantially changed. There have been some positive developments, but they go nowhere near to redressing the failures of the past four years.
Yes, there have been the much-needed funds from the EU's Peace and Reconciliation Fund and yes, unemployment in the Six Counties has fallen. However there are also serious negatives in the economic environment of the Six Counties today.
The peace fund is a small contribution to resolving a big problem and ultimately, the communities that make up the Six-County economy should not have to depend on the EU. They should be in control of their economic environment.
Nothing that has happened in the Six Counties since September 1994 has moved towards the creation of bottom up participatory democratic structures. There are also other problems. What the peace fund added, the ACE cutbacks took away. The International Fund is still congratulating itself on yet another good year, yet the flaws identified in its operations by nationalists have never been addressed.
Deliberate Exclusion
Then there is the Six-County Industrial Development Board (IDB). In 1999, we have the same IDB with the same failed policies as in 1994. Like its sister organisation in the 26 Counties - the IDA, the IDB is a clone-like organisation dominated by government appointees who have an extremely narrow parameter of what industrial development is and most importantly where it should happen.
The deliberate exclusion of nationalist areas from industrial development projects has been well documented. However, in the euphoric tidal wave of positive economic comment post the first IRA ceasefire in 1994, one could be forgiven for believing that the IDA was a reformed changed organisation.
However, a recent report by Denis O'Hearn and Charlie Fisher produced by the WBEF gives the lie to such an over optimistic appraisal of the IDB.
Challenging injustice
The WBEF is a ``non-party political, non-governmental organisation whose membership is drawn from community activists, academics, lawyers, educators and trainers living and working in West Belfast''. The forum seeks to challenge economic injustice and marginalisation in West Belfast.
Charlie Fisher one of the report's authors described the situation in West Belfast. He said ``West Belfast is one of the largest designated areas of social need in the north of Ireland and has one of the most concentrated unemployed populations with a particularly high concentration of long-term unemployed''.
Apart from the findings of a total fall in IDB-assisted jobs and a serious underrepresentation of Catholics in actual IDB-assisted jobs, the WBEF report also found that only 4% of the IDB's offers of assistance to foreign companies seeking to site in the Six Counties were made to companies planning to locate in West Belfast.
The report challenges not only the record of the IDB in West Belfast but also points up serious failures in its job creation policies. The IDB, they say, has continued to support traditional industries such as textiles, which are highly vulnerable to global economic changes and many companies are moving to countries with cheaper labour costs than Ireland.
Direct Competition
They found that the IDB often finds itself in direct competition with the IDA and frequently ``has to settle for foreign investors in which the IDA is not interested''. The WBEF report concludes that the IDB needs to find ``more effective ways of attracting investments to the area''. There is a need for ``north-south investment policies that are co-operative, not competitive''.
The WBEF report also concludes that there is a pressing need for attention to be given to the training needs of the people of West Belfast, as well as the infrastructural and social needs of its communities: ``The economic regeneration of an area like West Belfast demands a far-reaching social and economic programme that goes far beyond what can be done by an investment agency like the IDB.''
Jobs or Just Promises shows clearly the failure of not only the IDB, but also of the IDA in similarly economically deprived areas of the 26 Counties. It highlights the shifting sands on which job-creation policies throughout Europe are based, which brings us back to Bill Clinton. One of his election slogans in 1992 was simply ``It's the economy, stupid''. It seems that for industrial development agencies and economic policy makers throughout Ireland that lesson has never been learnt.
A recently published report by the West Belfast Economic Forum (WBEF) shows that the number of Industrial Development Board-assisted jobs in West Belfast have fallen by 14% over the past four years. The report, titled Jobs or Just Promises, also finds that in an area where the population is overwhelmingly nationalist, only 48% of the workers in IDB-backed jobs in the area were Catholic.
Four years of failure
Looking across the Six Counties, you might at first glance think that the economic environment had substantially changed. There have been some positive developments, but they go nowhere near to redressing the failures of the past four years.
Yes, there have been the much-needed funds from the EU's Peace and Reconciliation Fund and yes, unemployment in the Six Counties has fallen. However there are also serious negatives in the economic environment of the Six Counties today.
The peace fund is a small contribution to resolving a big problem and ultimately, the communities that make up the Six-County economy should not have to depend on the EU. They should be in control of their economic environment.
Nothing that has happened in the Six Counties since September 1994 has moved towards the creation of bottom up participatory democratic structures. There are also other problems. What the peace fund added, the ACE cutbacks took away. The International Fund is still congratulating itself on yet another good year, yet the flaws identified in its operations by nationalists have never been addressed.
Deliberate Exclusion
Then there is the Six-County Industrial Development Board (IDB). In 1999, we have the same IDB with the same failed policies as in 1994. Like its sister organisation in the 26 Counties - the IDA, the IDB is a clone-like organisation dominated by government appointees who have an extremely narrow parameter of what industrial development is and most importantly where it should happen.
The deliberate exclusion of nationalist areas from industrial development projects has been well documented. However, in the euphoric tidal wave of positive economic comment post the first IRA ceasefire in 1994, one could be forgiven for believing that the IDA was a reformed changed organisation.
However, a recent report by Denis O'Hearn and Charlie Fisher produced by the WBEF gives the lie to such an over optimistic appraisal of the IDB.
Challenging injustice
The WBEF is a ``non-party political, non-governmental organisation whose membership is drawn from community activists, academics, lawyers, educators and trainers living and working in West Belfast''. The forum seeks to challenge economic injustice and marginalisation in West Belfast.
Charlie Fisher one of the report's authors described the situation in West Belfast. He said ``West Belfast is one of the largest designated areas of social need in the north of Ireland and has one of the most concentrated unemployed populations with a particularly high concentration of long-term unemployed''.
Apart from the findings of a total fall in IDB-assisted jobs and a serious underrepresentation of Catholics in actual IDB-assisted jobs, the WBEF report also found that only 4% of the IDB's offers of assistance to foreign companies seeking to site in the Six Counties were made to companies planning to locate in West Belfast.
The report challenges not only the record of the IDB in West Belfast but also points up serious failures in its job creation policies. The IDB, they say, has continued to support traditional industries such as textiles, which are highly vulnerable to global economic changes and many companies are moving to countries with cheaper labour costs than Ireland.
Direct Competition
They found that the IDB often finds itself in direct competition with the IDA and frequently ``has to settle for foreign investors in which the IDA is not interested''. The WBEF report concludes that the IDB needs to find ``more effective ways of attracting investments to the area''. There is a need for ``north-south investment policies that are co-operative, not competitive''.
The WBEF report also concludes that there is a pressing need for attention to be given to the training needs of the people of West Belfast, as well as the infrastructural and social needs of its communities: ``The economic regeneration of an area like West Belfast demands a far-reaching social and economic programme that goes far beyond what can be done by an investment agency like the IDB.''
Jobs or Just Promises shows clearly the failure of not only the IDB, but also of the IDA in similarly economically deprived areas of the 26 Counties. It highlights the shifting sands on which job-creation policies throughout Europe are based, which brings us back to Bill Clinton. One of his election slogans in 1992 was simply ``It's the economy, stupid''. It seems that for industrial development agencies and economic policy makers throughout Ireland that lesson has never been learnt.