Executive failure to tackle cost of division will penalize us all - Parsley

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 3rd May 2007

Alliance Youth Affairs Spokesperson Ian James Parsley

Alliance Youth Affairs Spokesperson Ian James Parsley welcomed the challenge from the Institute of Directors to the Executive to tackle the cost of division as the most important part of any economic turnaround in Northern Ireland.

Speaking after an Institute of Directors lunch, the North Down Councillor stated: "We heard today how the line the Alliance Party has developed on the costs of division and segregation is now accepted across all sectors. The challenge now is for our political leaders to do something about it.

"It is beyond dispute now that segregated schools, divided health housing and separate leisure facilities cost us all - not just directly, but in terms of delivering the setting where entrepreneurship and investment can deliver real prosperity.

"However, the each of the Executive parties represents only a sectional interest in our society. They have a long way to go to prove they have any ability to deliver a community in NI which, despite its differing aspirations and backgrounds, is united in stability, prosperity and fairness.

"It has taken too long even to recognize the problem - and that was the easy part! Taking action to bring an end to segregation will be much more difficult. The Executive has one full term of government to start delivering, otherwise it will be for the people to judge them at the polls.

"Each one of us pays the cost of segregation - it is a cost we should no longer be willing to bear and we should penalize the parties which are unwilling to bring down that cost."

ENDS