As Northern Ireland heads towards the new millennium, there are reasons to be optimistic about the fight against religious discrimination in the workplace, the chairman of the Fair Employment Commission, Mr Bob Cooper, has said.
Speaking at a reception to mark 21 years of fair employment legislation in the North, Mr Cooper expressed hope for a more positive political and economic environment in which to build a fairer society.
"There are grounds for optimism and we can look forward to the new millennium with a justifiable degree of confidence. Fair employment legislation has done much to create a more equitable and efficient labour market. And as the economy expands, the benefits of that will be very much more clearly seen.
"Northern Ireland has been at the cutting edge of equal opportunities practice and, with the increasing pace of harmonisation of employment legislation throughout Europe, Northern Ireland companies are already some way along the learning curve required."
However, it was important that these benefits reached the most disadvantaged section of society. "The eradication of the differentials in experience of employment and unemployment between the two communities, particularly in the context of long-term unemployment, must be a focus for our actions in coming years."
Speaking at the FEC reception, the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, said the North's anti-discrimination law was recognised as being among the strongest in the world. The religious imbalance in employment was narrowing, although unemployment was "still a blight on the lives of too many, particularly among the Roman Catholic community".