The Perception of Poverty in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This paper extracts data from the EEC’s public opinion survey entitled ‘The Perception of Poverty’ and presents previously unpublished data relating to Northern Ireland respondents. It suggests a relatively low awareness of the existence of poverty; a suspicion of state intervention to alleviate its causes and consequences; a tendency to attribute ‘need’ to individual or pathological rather than social causes. Differences in attitude and perception between Protestants and Catholics are also presented and discussed. Overall, respondents in Northern Ireland are closer in their attitudes to respondents in Great Britain than they are to respondents in the Republic of Ireland. The data relates to 312 cases in the province but because of the characteristics of the survey and the high non-response rate to certain questions (for example, voting intentions) the discussion is entirely descriptive. This is recognised to be a major deficiency in the paper, but it is believed that in the absence of any comparable data, and as an exercise in exploration rather than explanation it does provide an illustrative basis for subsequent work using a more satisfactory survey.