A new report by the Belfast-based civil liberties group, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), has criticised the British government for specifically targeting social need in deprived Protestant areas at the expense of Catholic areas.

The report collates data and studies to show that Protestants still enjoy advantage over Catholics, particularly in terms of jobs, housing and financial aid. It suggests that the British government is ignoring or suppressing this information.

The 208-page CAJ report, ‘Equality in Northern Ireland - the Rhetoric and the Reality’, also challenges the myth that disadvantaged Catholic areas should be better able to cope than similar Protestant areas.

Deprivation in Protestant and Catholics areas must be tackled equally, it says, criticising as “totally misconceived” the British government’s ‘Taskforce to Address the Needs of Protestant Working Class Communities’.

The following is an executive summary of the report.