Are community relations improving? Half say yes, half say no

Voluntary and community representatives are split down the middle on whether Northern Ireland is moving towards a shared future.

This means there has been no shift in opinion despite the agreement that led to devolved government and the existence of a functioning Assembly and Executive for the last year.

In a poll on www.communityni.org, half of those who voted said they thought community relations in Northern Ireland are improving and the same proportion disagreed.

The survey was on the website in April-May this year and 195 people voted. Of these, 98 said yes and 97 said no.

Exactly the same question was asked in April-May 2006. On that occasion a narrow majority believed that community relations were improving: 53% compared with 47% who voted no.

This means that the creation of the Executive and Assembly has had no obvious impact on opinion over the last two years. If anything, people are marginally more pessimistic about the prospects for community relations.

One factor may be the Executive’s failure so far to produce a strategy to replace the shared future plan produced by previous Direct Rule Ministers.

However, an announcement is due soon on the new policy, known as Cohesion, Sharing and Integration. NICVA is holding a seminar on what the voluntary and community sector can do on 30 May 2008. For more information click on: http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/news/key/300408_Cohesion_draft_policy