Ever
hear of Paul Gorecki?
By Brian Feeney
Irish News
You might have seen him on TV a couple of weeks ago. Well you might have
if you'd been very quick. He had less than 20 seconds to say why his organisation
didn't think much of the Department of Economic Development's plans for
the next 10 years. In the short time available he was very incisive. If
he'd been brutal he could have said that, if the DED was a band, its plans
showed they didn't know their brass from their oboe.
Being diplomatic he implied that if the plans set out in the body of the
text are the route map to the DED's objectives then it's difficult to spot
much connection between the road and the destination. Who is he then? To
put you out of your misery, he's director of the Northern Ireland Economic
Council (NIEC). You won't be surprised to learn there's a rumour the DED
is thinking of abolishing NIEC. After all it's critical of DED policies,
it catalogues DED shortcomings, it presents independent proposals for improving
matters but even worse, the proposals tend to be proved correct. In other
words it fulfills all the NIO criteria for abolition.
Besides there are people on it who could be classed as lefties and we all
know what New Labour thinks about lefties. The adjective 'dangerous' always
goes in front of them. Now here's an even harder question. Who's the man
in the British administration here in charge of the DED? In short, who is
now what a previous incumbent used to style himself, the Minister for the
Economy? You'd need to run your mind over the names of the parliamentary
under- secretaries who call themselves ministers here before you could narrow
them down to the one allegedly in charge of economic affairs but you don't
know who they are or how many, do you? Does it matter?
Mo Mowlam is in charge of everything, though how anyone can tell is another
matter; and secondly, even if you could dredge up the name, can you mention
any policy he's produced to deal with economic affairs? Of course not. All
so-called ministers here just carry out the plans, for want of a better
word, which the various NIO departments hand them.
Stormont Castle won't be awarding any marks then to the NIEC for drawing
attention to the emperor's nudity. It's a pity though it has to be left
to Paul Gorecki to do local politicians' work. What do they think about
the DED's projections? Sorry, used that word 'think' again. Let's ask: 'Have
local parties anything to say about this subject? Question three: Name the
economic spokesperson of any of the parties.
Question four: Can you remember any of them ever being on TV doing the sort
of stuff Paul Gorecki was doing? What have the parties done with the hundreds
of thousands of pounds the NIO has thrown at them since 1996 to conduct
research, apart that is from appointing research officers? Ah, they protest,
they 'launch' policy documents. Towards what target? Into orbit so that
they inevitably crash to earth under the weight of their grandiloquent statements?
Mere experts like Gorecki just publish documents. Why don't politicians
here at least use his documents to demand answers from the NIO? For example
the NIEC has shown New Targeting Social Need is full of holes.
It may be as big a failure as the original TSN. The NIEC's chairman has
said New TSN (dontcha just love that 'New'?) is handicapped because the
north "does not have the data series - the raw material if you will - to conduct serious analytical research on the dynamics of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion". This despite the fact that such data series have been collected in Britain since 1958. She says "The lack of commitment by NI to participate in such studies is particularly disconcerting in view of the commitment to TSN and the broader equality agenda." You might think it's nothing short of an amazing, even scandalous state of affairs in the poorest part of the UK. |
