Making
Policy in Northern Ireland: A critique of Strategy 2010 by J. Bradley &
D. Hamilton
From: Administration 1999 Vol 47 No 3 Autumn (Institute of Public Policy,
Dublin)
[4] Conclusions
Strategy 2010 makes 62 separate recommendations which can be informally
classified into the following five broad groups (Table 1):
To illustrate the classification, an example of a recommendation of an "exhortatory"
nature is the following:
Businesses should take every opportunity to minimize their environmental
impact through measures which will also enhance their competitiveness (page
148).
An example of a recommendation relating to variation in existing, or the
creation of new policy instruments is the following:
Northern Ireland should have a special rate of Corporation Tax for new inward
investments over a period of 5 years (page 168).
Table 1
| Subject
classification |
Number
|
| Relating
to institutional rearrangements |
27 |
| Exhortatory |
15 |
| Related
to policy instruments |
9
|
| Relating
to education and training matters |
8
|
| Environmental
planning, etc. |
3 |
| Total |
62 |
After stripping away the rhetoric of partnership and consultation, Strategy
2010 essentially comes down to proposals for reformed or new institutions
without in any way providing analysis of whether or how the old institutions
were inadequate or failed, together with a series of exhortations (usually
to the private business sector or the general public) that are not associated
with any policy instruments or mechanisms. The policy recommendations that
are made lack focus and involve no radical rethink about the policy framework
that would be appropriate for a region like Northern Ireland, in the context
of devolving governance within the UK and the growth and evolution of the
economy of the island of Ireland. The quantitative targets listed at the
end of the report are modest, probably achievable without much effort if
external conditions (including the subvention finance) are reasonably benign,
but are unconnected with the analysis, diagnosis and policy recommendations
contained in the report.
On balance, much of the material dealing with Northern economic performance
is partial, confused and complacent. If Northern Ireland really has structural
and economic developmental challenges, than a concise and frank statement
of these problems would help clear the air and lay the ground work for policy
prescriptions. A better understanding of the functioning of the Northern
economy is badly needed, informed by high quality applied economic research.
Such research needs to be placed in the context of the work on other European
regions (as illustrated by the seminal NIEC report by Dunford and Hudson,
1996) and also has much to learn from research on the cohesion problems
faci
1 The Republic of Ireland had a zero rate of corporate profits tax on profits
derived from manufactured exports prior to EU entry. When Ireland joined
the then EEC, this had to be changed to a flat rate on all manufacturing
of 10 per cent. Proposals are being considered to switch to a flat rate
of 12.5 per cent for the entire corporate sector.
2 Although the Republic of Ireland's 10 per cent corporate tax rate is not
targeted on specific sectors ex ante, in effect it favours high profit companies
ex post, and these tend to be in electronics, pharmaceuticals, etc.
|
