Equity as a policy objective: the case of Northern Ireland

The notion that equity is a prerequisite for economic growth and should be pursued as a policy objective in its own right has gained widespread acceptance in the 1990s at the European and international level. In particular, equity considerations were explicitly introduced into the public policy domain in Northern Ireland in 1991 in the form of a public expenditure priority entitled “Targeting Social Need” (TSN). This article has a number of purposes. First, it outlines the theoretical underpinning of equity as a meaningful policy objective in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Second, it evaluates the implementation of “Targeting Social Need” in Northern Ireland, a relatively disadvantaged and unequal society. Finally, it concludes by highlighting the less than effective implementation of this equity‐based policy in Northern Ireland to date and suggests how this could be usefully improved.