The poorest members of society in Northern Ireland are worse off than they were a decade ago despite government rhetoric to the contrary, it was claimed today.
The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) said Government polices were ignoring serious community disparities and occasionally worsening problems of disadvantage and communal division. Urgent action is needed, it said.
A day after ministers hailed another drop in unemployment and rise in employment to record levels, Tim Cunningham, the CAJ's equality officer, said: "Despite the Government rhetoric to the contrary, the reality is that the poorest members of our society, both Catholic and Protestant, are relatively worse off than they were 10 years ago.
"Northern Ireland has the highest economic inactivity rate in the UK, so the idea that Northern Ireland as a whole is benefiting from increased prosperity and economic growth in nonsense."
Mr Cunningham said: "Rather than genuinely tackling poverty in both Catholic and Protestant working class communities, Government appears to be sectarianising the debate.
"It has disregarded major differences in labour market trends between the two communities; failed to target investment effectively at those in most need; and has pursued measures such as Shared Future and the Taskforce on Protestant Working Class Communities that at best ignore and at worst exacerbate community differences."
The report was issued on the 30th anniversary of the fair employment legislation of 1976, when religious and political discrimination in the workplace was explicitly outlawed in Northern Ireland.
However it said there were important sectors of employment and types of work that were still predominately occupied by members of one or other community.