Secretary of State For Northern Ireland
Paterson was appointed as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in The Coalition Government on 12 May 2010. He was created a Privy Counsellor on 13 May 2010.
One of his first tasks was overseeing the publication and delivery of the Saville Report on the events of Bloody Sunday which led to an apology by the Prime Minister David Cameron. He Worked with the Treasury to deliver his promise of a consultation on the devolution of the power to reduce the rate of Corporation Tax to Stormont. Paterson has stated that "Rebalancing and rebuilding the economy is critical to the future prosperity of Northern Ireland and it is one of the Government’s key priorities for Northern Ireland." He has been outspoken on the issue of integrated education in Northern Ireland. Currently 95% of Northern Ireland pupils attend a segregated school He has said segregated education was not working. He stated in October 2010 that “there's a school in Belfast with no pupils and there's a school in Belfast with more staff than pupils. That's just a criminal waste of public money. We cannot go on bearing the cost of segregation and I don't see why the British taxpayer should continue to subsidise segregation." This is all part of his “normalisation” idea.
Read more about this topic: Owen Paterson
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