NI sectarian divisions cost £1.5bn each year

30 Aug 07
A leaked report written by Deloitte for the government estimates that the cost of sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland could be £1.5bn a year.

31 August 2007

A leaked report written by Deloitte for the government estimates that the cost of sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland could be £1.5bn a year.

The report states that schools, security, health, housing and leisure all cost more because of community segregation. For example, an extra 165 school bus runs are required to take children to schools chosen by religion rather than location.

There is 'significant evidence that issues of segregation and conflict continue to influence policy decisions, public service provision and hence resource allocations', the report states. It adds that the economic cost might be 30,000 jobs.

Democratic Unionist Party MP and MLA Gregory Campbell, a former minister, told Public Finance: 'There is an additional cost, that is fairly evident,' pointing to swimming pools in Belfast 200 yards apart, one to service a Protestant area, the other for Catholics.

But he added: 'The only way we will arrive at the most cost-effective way of running services, such as schools which everyone can go to, is over a protracted period.'

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