Debate contribution: Child Poverty: North Belfast

Debate contribution by Ms Carál Ní Chuilín on 24 September 2024.

MLA

Ms Carál Ní Chuilín

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

24 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Child Poverty: North Belfast

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4645049

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Nuala, for securing an Adjournment debate on the issue. I am sure that Nuala and others would agree that providing an anti-poverty strategy and resolution is a cross-departmental issue: it absolutely is. Certainly, DFC is taking the lead on it, but this goes as far back as the Good Friday Agreement — half of those in the Chamber probably will not remember it — which included a section on bringing forward an anti-poverty strategy. It is another outstanding commitment that we have been waiting for. Certainly, the current British Government appear to be following in the footsteps of their Tory partners. Their announcements on the winter fuel payments, not scrapping the two-child benefit cap and all the rest just do not augur well for people who are living in already challenging circumstances. Poverty levels in the constituencies of North Belfast, West Belfast, as Nuala pointed out, and Foyle — Sinéad is here from Derry — have remained persistently high and in the top 10% of the most deprived. It will take an all-Executive approach to eradicate poverty. In our constituency of North Belfast, New Lodge 1 is ranked fifth; seventh is Crumlin 2; ninth is Ardoyne 3; fourteenth is New Lodge 2; fifteenth is New Lodge 3; nineteenth is Duncairn 1, and twenty-first is Water Works 1. It is a depressing read. Hopefully, the Minister will bring the strategy forward under the social inclusion strategies soon. I look forward to hearing what he has to say today.

The cost of living has been discussed in the Chamber and others across the board. It has been incrementally increasing since 2018. Six years later, things are not getting any easier. Wages have not gone up. People are having to wait for five weeks to migrate from different benefits to universal credit (UC) and rely on food banks and, perhaps, loans. That is pushing people into poverty. The humiliation of poverty is long-lasting. I remember growing up in a house in which most of the women worked because men could not get jobs. I am not being political as such, but there were few jobs for people like my father, who was a skilled engineer, because he was a Catholic. That was a fact when we were growing up. He had to go elsewhere to work. I remember getting what was then a blue dinner ticket for access to free school meals. I remember feeling embarrassed standing beside people who had a pink or green dinner ticket; the stigma of poverty was there. For me, like many of my friends and the people whom I grew up with, that became a way of life. We are all passionate about different aspects of this. Nuala mentioned something that I have also seen, and it is horrendous. The education maintenance allowance (EMA) for teenage children was removed, but, when it comes to participation in sports, arts and other things, there are children who do not have access to the necessary equipment, even though there are clothes banks, sports banks, music banks and all sorts. That means that a lot of children will not even have aspirations in those areas. There is poverty of aspiration, which is debilitating and horrendous. Brian will know that, although it is taking a bit of a hammering at the minute, good relations work in North Belfast will, as usual, bounce back. A lot of the youth good relations programmes have food built into them. It is not just about getting the kids in; health and safety and food are now built into those programmes as well, because children are coming to them hungry. Housing and health are other aspects. There could be three or four generations under one roof, with teenagers and young children sharing one or two rooms. That is humiliating and horrendous. That has been the custom and practice, and I desperately ask that we change it. Accessing affordable housing is a massive challenge across all constituencies, but, in areas where there is big demand, landlords — I will not repeat what I think of most of them — use market forces to squeeze families out. That is horrendous, and it is greed. The impact of that on children's physical and mental health is huge. Nuala mentioned speech and language. In our constituency, there are long waiting lists for children to access autism assessments, speech and language therapy and dentists. The oral and dental health is horrendous. There is also childhood obesity. In addition, a number of children are on individual education plans while —

— they await diagnosis. Minister, this is not just your responsibility, but you have the privilege of bringing something forward to address it. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

792 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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