www.borderpeople.infowww.borderpeople.info

North/ South Ministerial Council

Aug 2000 Preliminary Study (CCBS)Sept 2000 NSMC Plenary

Nov 2001 Main StudyNov 2001 NSMC Plenary

Jan 2002 Public ConsultationJune 2002 NSMC Plenary

March 2004 Review of Information Provision

2007-2008 Border People - Phase I (PEACE)

2009-2011 Border People - Phase II (INTERREG)

50 Recommendations

• Information Improvements• Taxation• Pensions• Social Security benefits• Health/ Childcare• Housing• Transport• Education, Training and Employment• Telecommunications, Banking and Insurance

Public consultation (January 2002)

Most deliverable - Information improvements“the one-stop-shop should be independent of existing providers”

“ the information initiative should be a partnership between NICAB and Comhairle”

Least deliverable – Personal taxation“..outside the remit of the NI Assembly”

Information Improvements

NSMC Plenary 2002• 5 categories of recommendations• Considered recommendations on the difficultly of

accessing relevant information• Agreement to establish a website to act as a central

point of entry to existing cross-border mobility in both jurisdictions

Review of existing information provisionSouth - Centre for Cross Border Studies (March 2004)North – PricewaterhouseCoopers (June 2004)

Border People - Phase I

2 years (2007-2008 PEACE)Developed and managed by CCBSHosted by DFPNI Delivery and Innovation DivisionIntegrated marketing campaign – 2 public launchesPeak 50,000 page views per month during public launches (Apr’08)3 User GroupsBorderWise FAQs and Case Studies

Themes

•Commute

•Work

•Live

•Study

Life Events

•Becoming unemployed•Getting married / divorced•Having a baby•Going back to education•Setting up a bank account•Starting a new job•Retiring•Health care / Getting ill•Moving

Target Groups

•Frontier workers•Job seekers•Retired•Self-employed•The unemployed

•Workers •Migrant workers•Students•Parents•People with disabilities

Border People - Phase II

•INTERREG IVA – 2009-2011

•Partnership NSMC/Centre for Cross Border Studies

•6 Steering Group meetings

•6 User Group meetings

•30 month marketing campaign

Border People – Information Pages

•240 information pages – not including FAQs and Case studies

•Content continually updated –65 pages updated since Feb 09–Hundreds of new links added or replaced

Topics updated recently include:

•Migrant worker rights•Free travel scheme•Carers Allowance•Redundancy•Starting a business•Job seeking•Minimum wage•Income tax

•Tax credits•Child Benefit•Car insurance•UK and Irish Budgets

–VAT–Stamp Duty–Capital Gains Tax–Job Seeker supports–Vehicle Scrappage Scheme

Plans for the Phase II - Information

•Update every page

•Consolidate similar pages / topics

•Include a Frontier Worker element to each page

•Frequent dynamic Polls to capture information on users – expectations

Role of the User Group – To advise ......Role of the User Group – To advise ......

•Nature, scope and effectiveness of website

•Information needs of the community

•Matters relating to cross-border mobility policy and management

•Development on website service standards and performance indicators

•Opportunities for improvement.

User Group – May 2008

•we still do not have any better statistics on the exact numbers of people mobile across the border•cited statistics are estimates developed in 2001 during the preparation of the North/South Ministerial Council Obstacles to Mobility Study•lack of an accurate, in-depth understanding on cross-border mobility groups within the island is considered by the User Group to be the “major missing element in the overall picture”

Scale of cross-border mobility

Year Scale2000 18,000 frontier workers - 9,000 in each direction

(Obstacles to Cross-border Mobility report)Mid-1990’s Almost 9,000 workers commuting South ->North

Estimated 2,500 workers commuting North-> South(EURES figures)

1995-1999 Migration inward inflow of 2, 616 South ->North

Average annual outflow of 2, 757 North -> South(Department of Enterprise , Trade and Investment NI)

1998 -1999 4790 cross-border students1, 008 Northern students in the South4, 206 Southern students in the North

(Higher Education Statistics)1996 39, 567 people usually reside in the South who had been

born in the North (Central Statistics Office)

Parliamentary Question 25 Feb 2009

•How many people resident in Northern Ireland were employed in the Republic of Ireland?

•Up to 6800 in 05/06 and 7700 in 07/08 (includes ALL countries, not possible to isolate the south)