McCarthy welcomes call for more mixed housing

1.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 29th Jul 2008

Alliance Chief Whip Kieran McCarthy MLA

Alliance Chief Whip Kieran McCarthy MLA had welcomed a report produced for the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister that calls for more mixed housing as a way of promoting community relations. The report entitled 'Can Contact Promote Better Relations', found that neighbourhood ties reduce anxiety between all communities and that policy makers should take into account the promotion of community relations when deciding policies

Kieran McCarthy MLA said: "This report again shows that the Executive should be doing more to increase the number of shared spaces and that they should reduce the segregation that still exists in Northern Ireland today.

"The Executive have not done anything about a report that they commissioned over a year ago that showed that we waste a billion pounds a year on maintaining a divided society.

"This report says that one off initiatives are unlikely to have much of a long term impact as compared to those that establish ties and close friendships between the all communities. This must be acted upon by the

Executive which has so far refused to do anything substantial about this problem.

"Shared spaces such as mixed housing areas are a good way of promoting integration and building ties between both sides of our community. Other areas of integration such as education and leisure must also be promoted Too often many people grow up without knowingly coming into contact with somebody from the so called other side, this must end. We are wasting too much money on a segregated society and we will continue to do so until the Executive acts."

ENDS