Northern Ireland must shrink its public sector to boost economic competitiveness as it emerges from three decades of violence that stunted development, a minister in Britain's Northern Ireland Office said yesterday.
In recent years, Northern Irish growth has outstripped most other regions of the UK, but many economists believe it remains chronically dependent on government money.
At least one in three jobs in the North are in the public sector - compared with 23 per cent in Britain - and the ratio of public expenditure to GDP is more than 60 per cent, compared with a little over 40 per cent in other parts of Britain.
"It's clear that, over the next 10 years, the size of the public sector has got to shrink at the same time as the private sector has got to grow, and managing that transition is really a key task," said Mr Ian Pearson, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Northern Ireland Office.
"That's why public sector reform has got to be high on our agenda - it's why measures to strengthen business competitiveness are at the root of what we are doing now," he said.
Mr Pearson, who was drafted into the North after the British government suspended the Assembly in October 2002, was speaking at the launch of the first annual review of Northern Ireland's Strategic Investment Board.
The board, modelled on the Treasury Taskforce established by the British Labour government when it came to power in 1997, was set up to oversee an investment programme aimed at overcoming the legacy of 30 years of political and sectarian violence.
"As a government, we've announced £2.7 billion [€4.05 billion\] of strategic investment in Northern Ireland, which is money to go into water, into roads, a new hospital, a whole package of new schools," said Mr Pearson.
"But that should only be seen as the start of what's needed in Northern Ireland, there's a huge infrastructure backlog. As a legacy of the troubles, Northern Ireland saw a stagnation of investment, both from the public sector and private sector."
Analysts say Northern Ireland needs to spend £6 billion to brings its transport, education and health infrastructures into line with Britain , and the government believes there is great scope for more private sector involvement.
A key role of the Strategic Investment Board is to advise ministers on setting up public/private partnerships.
Yesterday's report said that, in its first 11 months of operation, it had more than doubled the value of privately financed projects, compared with those that had been signed in the previous 11 years. - (Reuters)
