Conclusions on First & Deputy First Ministers' commitment to community relations

On 19 December 2012, I wrote to the Permanent Secretary of the Office of First and Deputy First Ministers (the OFMDFM), two weeks after the outbreak of hostile protests against Belfast City Council’s majority vote to revise policy on display of the Union Jack. 

As a follow-up to my 13 page line-by-line critique of his Department’s 2½ year old draft strategy for community relations[1] I expressed astonishment at the lethargy on the part of his Department in finalisation of the strategy.

I added that because the protests besmirch the reputation of everybody who lives in Northern Ireland, a message needs to be broadcast loud and clear that Northern Ireland's British and Irish people can neither afford, accept, nor justify tribal intolerance in our home city or region.   

I urged him to take a more assertive position in advising the two main parties of regional Government.

His brief response restricted itself to reassurances that meetings were taking place and that community relations strategy is receiving the highest level of commitment across the Department.   

Despite being flattered to receive his personal reply but disappointed at his verbal economy, I took up his kind invitation to contact the head of community relations, and wrote to her on 7 January[2].

Her reply emphasised the funding devoted to various community relations programmes - £10m in the current financial year.  

Helpful as this information is as one measure of Government’s work, her reference to spending leaves unanswered what performance indicators OFMDFM uses, if any, to monitor the success or failure of its programmes.   

Without a strategy, perhaps there are no targets.

Encouragingly, she says that the lack of a finalised strategy does not mean that community relations activity is suspended or undervalued.  She does not recognise, however, that the absence of a strategic context for funding schemes is a fatal flaw in the OFMDFM’s stance.

The current approach is piecemeal.   

The programmes promoting reconciliation, funded by the Government and others, including the European Union and the International Fund for Ireland, would be more effective in practice – synergistic - if they were co-ordinated within the framework of a strategy for community relations.

Disappointingly her reply fails to comment on any of my analysis.  

As if to refute my case, she cites Civil Service rules on impartiality.  This is her justification for offering no comment on what she describes as my “political statements and assertions.”   

That accusation is disingenuous.

The Census results and Belfast Telegraph polls quoted in my letter are neither political statements nor are they assertions.  They are quantified facts, impartial statistical data. 

When I illustrate the consequences of a policy vacuum with reference to documented sectarian disturbances I am stating fact, not making political assertions.

The same applies to the press reports quoted from newspapers such as the Times, Observer and Belfast Telegraph providing evidence and describing the impacts of lawlessness on our livelihoods and reputation.  

More recently, the PSNI have provided further data about the costs of policing, while businesses have quantified the scale of worsening damage to the region’s economy.   The evidence base for an overdue policy grows daily.

It’s a privilege to participate in the Government’s process of policy-making.  Feedback helps it legitimise the final strategy.   

For that reason, it galls to have carefully-prepared apolitical analysis dismissed en masse as assertions.  OFMDFM should instead process public representations as part of the evidence base, and complementary to the datasets, case-studies, and expert background advice.

The Community Relations Council (CRC) argues[3] that community activists have become increasingly concerned that, despite politicians’ talk (in code) about a ‘shared future’, no credible process has yet been established to confront sectarianism, or the identity issues which lie at the root of our communal divisions.

A year ago CRC published an “independent monitoring report[4] of Northern Ireland’s journey out of violence.”   

This is an object lesson in the sound use of official statistics with logical analysis and proper prose, a sharp contrast to the OFMDFM’s draft community relations strategy.   

The CRC report collated a wide array of statistics, examined and commented both on policy context (flags and community relations included) as well as on copious datasets.  

OFMDFM could take note that objective analysis of facts, figures, and other evidence does not impugn impartiality.

Civil Servants have a duty to serve the public interest.  That means providing Government with expert advice and research, evidence which they have to assemble and analyse. 

This includes ensuring that policies are coherent and guidelines applied.   

They cannot be impartial to official evidence.  

Neither can any policy ignore quantitative and qualitative evidence based on a specious argument about impartiality.  

In the context of delays and recent violence, to state that OFMDFM is highly committed to finalising its strategy rings hollow.

I am incredulous that OFMDFM officials are not examining the evidence, analysing data that bear on community relations. 

I cannot believe that they are neutral and impassive with no analysis or view of the impact of the protests.

The governing parties have failed for nearly 3 years to agree a strategy for community relations.  The OFMDFM’s officials have difficulty drafting policy and use impartiality as erroneous justification to avoid analysing the problems which necessitate a robust policy response.

With authorities like these forming the body politic, it is no surprise that our beloved region gains a reputation for intolerance and division.   

Abraham Lincoln’s speech of almost biblical proportions - “a house divided against itself cannot stand” - is topical and resonant.   

At a time of austerity in public expenditure and the live debate about the need to rebalance the region’s economy, Northern Ireland’s leaders have to confront the issue of its economic and political sustainability.

The flags issue reminds us of the fragility of community relations in Northern Ireland.  

It is just one symptom of a malaise that threatens to expunge the remarkable progress made during the last 15 years.  

A concerted effort is long overdue to address the issues of hatred, prejudice, sectarianism, non-cohesion, and potential disintegration.  

The spotlight is on the First and Deputy First Ministers to deliver.

©Michael McSorley 2013

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[1] “Programme for Cohesion Sharing and Integration Consultation” (CSI) July 2010 Office of First & Deputy First Minister. OFMDFM received 288 replies, listing mine as no. 35.

[2] http://strategyni.blogspot.co.uk/ “An Analysis of the rationale for the Union Jack protest 31 Jan 2013

[3] CRC e-bulletin Issue 44, 1 Feb 2013 Jacqueline Irwin CEO

[4] CRC “Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Report No. 1” Paul Nolan Feb 2012