Examination of Witnesses (Questions 175
- 179)
WEDNESDAY 27 JANUARY 1999
MRS JANET
TREWSDALE and DR
PAUL GORECKI
Chairman
175. A very warm welcome to you, and thank
you very much indeed for coming. We have the advantage, in advance,
of knowing who you are, and the sign which is in front of you
is also legible to us. We seek, if possible, to have a logic to
the order of the questions which we ask you, and, therefore, in
terms of who is asking them, they may come from different quarters
of the horseshoe. We recognise both that we may have supplementary
questions, which we fail to ask during the course of the session,
which we may want to send you in writing afterwards, and that
you may want to gloss answers you have given, particularly when
you have the advantage of reading the text of what you have said,
so that if you want to follow up subsequently by letting us have
any further information or any further comments shading, please
do not hesitate to do so. I do not know whether you want to make
any introductory remarks before we embark on questions. We do
have the advantage of the regular publication, which you have
sent us, on the subject of TSN, which obviously has virtue in
this instance. I should say that, not remotely under our control,
a debate is going on—on terrorism and its effects—on
the floor of the House at this moment, which has necessarily affected
the number of people who are here and may affect people's presence
in the room, as we get into questions; but that is a coincidence
over which we have no control. Feel no obligation to say anything,
but if you would like to please do?
(Mrs Trewsdale) No, we are quite happy to continue,
Chairman.
Chairman: Alright;
well, because Mr Robinson is one of those who will be leaving
us, for reasons which I think all of us understand, I am going
to suggest that he opens the batting.
Mr Robinson
176. Thank you very much, Mr Chairman. Good
afternoon. I think, perhaps, as a scene-setter, it might be useful
if you were to indicate which, if any, of the functions of the
Northern Ireland Economic Council you see as being relevant to
the issue of fair employment; and maybe, to give you time to think
about an answer while one is speaking, the other can think about
what is the past record of the Economic Council in terms of reports
on fair employment issues, or having made statements in relation
to fair employment issues?
(Mrs Trewsdale) Mr Chairman, the Northern Ireland
Economic Council is an independent body, which, as you know, was
set up in 1977 by the Secretary of State to advise the Secretary
of State on the development of economic policy in Northern Ireland.
We have 15 members, five independent, five from the trade union
side, and five from the CBI and Chamber of Commerce side. When
you say specifically which of our work is directly relevant to
fair employment, I find that a difficult question to answer directly,
because, as far as we are concerned, we are interested in the
development of economic policy, and we feel that it should promote
growth, but we also think that there should be economic development
through growth and not just simply growth. And so we obviously
accept the principles of fair employment in Northern Ireland and
we do, indeed, obviously support them, but we do not specifically
look directly at fair employment, as such, and we have not actually
published a paper on fair employment specifically either.
177. I think I am right in saying that you
do see that there is a relationship between the quality of opportunity,
on the one hand, and economic growth, on the other; and, if there
is that relationship, might one have expected that the Economic
Council might have considered these kinds of issues as being more
important?
(Mrs Trewsdale) Indeed, yes. Obviously, the link
between equal opportunity and economic growth is there, in the
sense that one uses resources more efficiently, from the straight
economics point of view, and, therefore, obviously, is more cost-effective,
as far as the economy is concerned. And the idea of every individual
fulfilling their abilities to the full, naturally, will improve
the economy of any area, and fair employment goes along with that.
178. I did not get an answer to the specific
question I asked earlier; am I to assume that the answer is none,
in relation to what reports, if any, have been issued by the Economic
Council in relation to this issue?
(Mrs Trewsdale) We have not issued a specific
report on fair employment in Northern Ireland, no.
179. Has it been considered but not reported
on?
(Mrs Trewsdale) It is considered, within the relevant
reports, for example, the New TSN report that you have already
received. If you want to ask me why have we not done it; the answer
there simply is that the resources that we have to do research
is just four researchers plus the Director, Paul here, beside
me, and that the area of research into fair employment in Northern
Ireland is what one might describe as a well-mined area, or seam,
in that, for example, SACHR itself was given the job of researching
into fair employment in Northern Ireland and a substantial budget
in order to do that. The academics have, again, looked in detail
into the research into fair employment in Northern Ireland, and
we have a limited budget and a limited number of researchers to
do it, and, therefore, we chose specifically not to look at it;
it does not mean to say we have ignored it, of course, do not
get the impression that we have ignored it.
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