Sectarian Division Costs £1.5bn Yearly

Community division in Northern Ireland is costing around £15 billion a year, according to a report commissioned by the government.

The report on division and community conflict in the province showed that security, housing, and schooling, which have been effectively segregated, imposed a heavy financial burden on funding.

The report by Deloitte concluded that housing cost £24 million extra a year. Co-operation on schooling could save up to £80 million a year.

However, the report conceded that it was difficult to extricate the precise additional costs incurred by the segregated portions of society in Northern Ireland.

The report was criticised by local politicians who rejected the inclusion of security costs with an attempt to assess the costs of separate services to those communities which were segregated.

(SP)