Nicola Grant Workers Party Regional spokesperson speaking at a Workers Party event discussing poverty said that child poverty is at the root of so many evils, yet our Executive parties are doing nothing to address the root causes of poverty and multiple deprivations. Ms. Grant said generational poverty has impacted on the life chances of not only families but entire communities.
Northern Ireland has the highest rates of poverty, child poverty, multiple deprivations health inequalities, educational underachievement, and housing insecurity in Western Europe. All these issues have a major impact on the life chances of those caught in the never-ending cycle of systemic failures to tackle poverty and all its manifestations and hopelessness. It is nothing short of scandalous that a country that is wealthy allows such conditions to exist. The workers Party has been at the forefront of raising these issues and have made major submissions to the programme for government on the first steps needed to start the process of implementing policies that will tackle the root causes ,of years of neglect and indifference to the plight of the working class.
Ms. Grant ended by saying those with the power and responsibility to make the necessary changes should be ashamed of themselves and their failure to address such poverty and deprivation. Their record of accomplishment on implementing policies that is making a dire situation worse is unconscionable. What is needed is a proper anti -poverty strategy that has solutions, with detailed actions plans with revenue costs attached to each plan, because it will need to be a whole government approach across all departmental budgets and programmes.
No more photo opportunities direct action on all these issues with financial and human Resources ring fenced for each project.
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