| Friday 3rd September, 2010 You are here: Home - 3rd September 2010 Index Page - 3rd September 2010 Frontpage |
Front Page
Secretary of State impressed by ‘vibrant’ Church life in Northern Ireland
 |
| Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, pictured during last week’s Gazette interview at Hillsborough Castle. |
In an exclusive interview last week at Hillsborough Castle with the Church of Ireland Gazette editor, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP, said he had been greatly impressed by the "vibrant" life of the Churches in Northern Ireland and the "lively, intense interest" in Church matters generally. He said this contrasted with a more general lack of interest in England, which he described as "unhealthy".
Mr Paterson spoke of his own involvement in local Church life in his home parish where, among other things, he reads lessons and rings the bell.
The Secretary of State said that the initiative taken by the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe and other Church leaders by going to meet the Bogside residents after the recent publication of the Saville Report had been "a very good example". The Churches could show society "what is good and what is bad", he said, and referred to the importance of Church leadership.
"The only future is a shared future," Mr Paterson said of Northern Ireland society, and he stressed the contribution which the Churches could make towards making this a reality.
However, while the Saville Report had led to a real degree of healing in Londonderry, the Secretary of State said that the 12-year duration of the inquiry and its £192m cost had been "too long and too much".
Asked what the future process would be following the publication last week of the Police Ombudsman’s report on the Claudy atrocity, Mr Paterson said the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team would continue to work on the matter, but he was not hopeful of new evidence emerging.
He said that the Government had allowed the Ombudsman free access to its records for eight years, as had also the Roman Catholic Church and the RUC, and he did not think anything further would emerge from those sources.
However, he added: "There is one group of people who could come forward and those are the people that possibly helped build the bombs, the three car bombs. There may well be ex-paramilitaries who were involved in terrorism 38 years ago, who built those bombs, and perhaps they could bring information forward which would bring satisfaction to the families."
Mr Paterson said he did not underestimate the current danger of dissident terrorist groups, but also said he was confident that the clock would not be turned back to former levels of terrorist activity. He said he was confident because there were not the same social circumstances as previously. There was also now "quite unprecedented" co-operation with the Republic, with both Governments working "extremely closely" at all levels.
The Secretary of State continued:
"At Government level we have a devolved police force and justice system which is entirely responsible for local people, run by local people, again collaborating very closely with the relevant authorities in the Republic. So I don’t see us going back. We have [the] institutions up and running, following all the recent agreements, which are settling down. They may be imperfect but they are beginning to deliver."
However, Mr Paterson stressed that he did not underestimate the danger that "small numbers of determined and unprincipled people present to the general public". He said there was a very small number of "extremely dangerous" people "out there".
On the subject of the economy, the Secretary of State was asked how he believed Government could help the situation in the light of widespread cuts, what the prospects were for small to medium sized businesses – a subject recently brought to public prominence by the Archbishop of Armagh – and whether or not the Treasury could introduce some measure like the UK Export Credits Guarantee system as a means of introducing more flexibility.
Mr Paterson responded: "I had a meeting with Archbishop Harper just before the election … about helping get small businesses credit and I think he’s absolutely on the right lines. It’s something we as a Government are working on at the moment.
"But I think Northern Ireland has a much bigger long-term problem. It’s a monument to the failure of British regional policy over the past 40 years. Northern Ireland has the lowest productivity in the UK, and the total over-dependence on public spending is unsustainable. Public spending represents 77.6% of GDP, according to one study. That is wholly and totally unsustainable.
"And what I’ve said consistently for three years is it’s irresponsible to do nothing. It’s equally irresponsible to move too fast and too precipitately. "We’ve said we would like to bring in a whole raft of radical measures to turn Northern Ireland into an enterprise zone and over a period – which I’ve suggested could take as long as 25 years – rebalance Northern Ireland’s economy...
"We are looking at a whole range of measures which could help revive the private sector and one of those definitely is the possibility of giving the power to lower corporation tax to the Executive here."
Mr Paterson stressed that it was "a huge task" to turn round the dependence on State spending in Northern Ireland, but also said it could not be done too quickly. Doing nothing was "not an option", he said, adding that the high level of State spending had failed the economy.
Asked what an "enterprise zone" would look like, the Secretary of State said it meant an environment in which people wanted to expand existing local businesses or bring in fresh businesses, with finance being made available.
Asked if the Church could link in with the Prime Minister’s ‘Big Society’ concept and have a partnership with Government in the project, Mr Paterson said: "I think very much so. ‘Big Society’ is built on many of the ideas that came from Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice which he set up after he ceased to be leader, and actually here [in Northern Ireland] we were the first part of the United Kingdom to set up a branch of the CSJ outside London and we’ll be publishing a report on the long-term social problems of Northern Ireland … in the first week in September.
"There’s no doubt about it at all that when Iain first began this journey he went up to really grim parts of Glasgow, where he was inspired by some of the local ministers who were providing breakfast clubs to young primary school children who were going to school with no breakfast at all because their heroin-addicted parents were still in bed at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. So it was very much driven by ideas of charity … and of course those ideas have a strong Christian basis."
Mr Paterson said that Prime Minister David Cameron "likes Northern Ireland and is interested". He said Mr Cameron has a "real feel" for the region and wants to pay a visit soon.
(An online 10-minute audio of part of this interview can be heard at www.gazette.ireland.anglican.org/audio/audio.html) (An interview with a leading public figure in the Republic of Ireland is being arranged and will follow in due course.)
If you would like to comment on this article you can email us. Any emails may be included in future Letters to the Editor Section of the Church of Ireland Gazette. Full name and address should be included in the body of the email.