Chapter seven
Targeting social need
To redress this, the Policy Planning and Research Unit (PPRU), in 1993 and 1994, commissioned and published a study on relative deprivation in Northern Ireland (Robson et al, 1994). The work, drawing upon the 1991 Census, produced a matrix of deprivation at three different spatial levels; District Council (DC), Electoral Ward (EW) and Enumeration District (ED) level. The ED level analysis provides information on deprivation at a level of no more than 400 houses. The matrix, measuring the degree, intensity and extent of deprivation, has become important to the identification of need in Northern Ireland. Some Government departments (particularly the DED) and agencies were quick to adopt it in their TSN efforts. Two important TSN programmes, Making Belfast Work and the Londonderry Initiative (see section below on these special area initiatives), have recently used the model in defining their operational areas. 'Robson' (as it is now referred to in 'short-hand') does not go unchallenged. The West Belfast Economic Forum (WBEF), an independent research and lobbying group, has challenged the theoretical underpinning of the indicators used by Robson, suggesting that the statistical methods used minimise the effects of extreme values because they give all variables equal weighting. The WBEF believes that this has led to an underestimation of the extent of Catholic deprivation (cited in the Committee on the Administration of Justice submission to SACHR in 1995).
TSN as a Public Expenditure Priority
There have been notable difficulties in ascertaining how the planning and actual allocations of public money are affected or influenced by each of the public expenditure priorities operating between 1991 and 1994, particularly those of 'strengthening the economy' and 'targeting social need'. (NIEC, 1994). Apart from this general problem, considerable debate has ensued on the weighting of the TSN priority relative to the other two. Following the IRA and Combined Loyalist Military Command cease-fires of 1994, (December 1995), the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in the 1995 public expenditure announcement, stated that the 'top priority' of government between 1996/97 -1998/99 would be 'promoting and sustaining economic growth' unless violence resumed in which the 'law and order' priority would again come to the fore. It was significant that, even in the post-ceasefire climate, TSN was not accorded a ranking but rather described as continuing 'to be an important public expenditure priority'.
A further problem is the relationship between the 'strengthening the economy' and the TSN priorities. Teague (19xx) has argued that '(TSN) is implicitly perceived [by government] as qualifying, modifying or indeed contradicting the higher goal of strengthening the economy'. Such a 'contradiction' has been a focus of attention within the Department of Economic Development (see discussion below). Teague argued that the 'strengthening the economy' priority is wrongly narrowly focused on an economic orthodoxy which gives pride of place to the 'firm' without acknowledging wider social relationships:
Let us recognise also that the separation between the second and third government priorities of 'strengthening the economy' and 'targeting social need' is intellectually, as well as morally, indefensible. (In that context, the system of government priorities should be scrapped). (Teague, 19xx: xx).
TSN as a Policy Paradox
However TSN (or other public expenditure priorities) are defined, the general
characteristics of the policy-making process are important in their implementation.
Connolly (1992) identified two interrelated trends in the operation of the
policy process within Northern Ireland. First, there was a convergence of
Northern Ireland policy with that of the UK. Second, although principles
of parity and convergence were increasingly applied, there remained 'a dominance
of Northern Ireland Departments and the Northern Ireland Civil Service in
policy making within Northern Ireland'. Both of these characteristics are
relevant to TSN in so far as they identify the limits and potential of the
policy. |
