Northern Ireland at risk of Europe's worst poverty

Why would they need life insurance? Life insurance is to see that income isn't lost if a breadwinner dies. I'm guessing there aren't a lot of breadwinners.

seanomelbourne-I concur!

Poverty the cost of British rule.

cillowen - sorry but NI is actually the most giving place in the UK according to charity stats. Conservative Christians are also statistically significantly more likely to give more to charity than liberal leaning folk. rugbyplayer asks why? The answer is largely 30 years of IRA bombs targetting businesses, town centres and hotels with the aim of destabilising NI , also the decline of traditional industry - this has led to high numbers of government jobs. NI needs more private firms, less government ones. Orange Loyalist loons as you put it have little effect on the economy - dissident Republicans firebombing business premisies and setting of bombs in baks recently have much more of an effect on the economy (but not nearly as much as the IRA did before the GFA) but most of all it is the cost of fuel and housing which has gone up disproportionally compared to wages and effects the rest of the UK less as their wages were higher to begin with.

Why? As an ousider, it is myopic to predict or analyze these causes. Sectarian fighting once lessening a few years ago but now rising again as Orange loyalist loonies more bent on religious bigotry than progress for the Province are on the warpath again? Maybe. A Province too long relying on the UK dole? Maybe. Not enough foreign investment? Maybe. Inability of the Province's politicians to agree or unite on anything? Maybe. Possibly an exaggerated "Price of Being Poor Report?" Maybe. Does the Red Hand of Ulster need to rise from its past and reshape its future? Definitely.

LAST TIME I LOOKED NORTHERN IRELAND DOES NOT BELONG TO THE EU? CHECK IT OUT DARA KELLY.

Once again its the poor that get hit hardest during recessions created by the rich. In Europe as in the USA the rich should be paying a lot more taxes than they are currently getting away with. The gap between rich & poor is getting wider by the year.

LC and GD, the dildo brothers. Both winners of the stupidity contest.

I spent a day in the North just recently. No sign of poverty to me. The big difference between North and South is that in the North you don't get the feeling of being swamped by foreign migrants. There are some immigrants, but in moderate quantities. They don't overpower you like they do in downtown Dublin, which is now more like Delhi or Dar-Es-Salaam than Dublin. It's ironic, isn't it? Belfast is now a far more Irish city than Dublin!

With the amount of Southern Irish running up north to do their weekly shopping it would suggest the figures are wrong and its the Southern Irish in more poverty.