SAOIRSE32

Irish Examiner

20 July 2005
By Niall Murray

THE Government’s record on tackling child poverty is very poor despite Social and Family Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan’s assertion that the problem is “reprehensible”, a leading charity said yesterday.
The minister told the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, that ending child poverty was one of his main priorities.

“There are 80,000 lone parents, caring for 150,000 children, who need help,” Mr Brennan said.

“I consider the continued existence of child poverty in Ireland of exceptional wealth at the start of the 21st century to be reprehensible,” he said.

But Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) head of social justice and policy, John-Mark McCafferty, said: “Despite big increases in the social welfare budget, not all payments are targeted at the poorest families and children in poverty have actually lost out,” he said.

Mr McCafferty told the MacGill Summer School this week that 148,000 children are in consistent poverty and 250,000 more are at risk of being in a similar status.

The SVP’s annual budget of €30 million is spent helping less well-off families meet costs of food, health and education, school breakfast clubs and social housing provision.

Mr Brennan acknowledged that significant social issues can not be solved by welfare payments alone: “The honest route is to go behind the payments and confront the problem.”

BBC

Several soldiers were injured during the riots

The Army complaints watchdog has said he has been refused access to military papers on last year’s 12 July violence in north Belfast’s Ardoyne area.

The revelation came in the annual report by Jim McDonald, the independent assessor of military complaints procedures.

Mr McDonald said he was immensely disappointed by the Army’s refusal.

His report also reveals that there had been a 27% drop in the number of complaints against the Army.

Mr McDonald wanted to know about planning and what orders were given to troops caught up in rioting after an Orange Order parade passed the flashpoint route.

Dozens of police and soldiers were injured during the violence.

Mr McDonald said he was “dumbfounded and unhappy” he had been denied access to the Army papers.

“This is the first time I have been refused and it begins to eat away at the foundation of my independence,” he said.

He said the police had been “totally open and helpful in making their records available to me but unfortunately these do not give the military perspective”.

Restraint

Mr McDonald also said he believed the Army had shown “remarkable restraint” during the rioting.

The Army said an investigation into the riot had already been completed through the Starmer and Gordon report to the Policing Board.

“The MoD has declined a request from Mr McDonald for certain papers relating to public order events in the Ardoyne on July 12, 2004 because those events have already been thoroughly and independently investigated by the Starmer and Gordon report,” an Army spokesman said.

“The MoD is of the opinion that the independent assessor’s functions do not embrace an investigation into the events of that day and therefore there’s no requirement to release documents to support such an investigation.”

BreakingNews.ie

20/07/2005 - 16:07:44

A senior loyalist politician in Northern Ireland challenged the British government today to have him arrested if it believed his party had a say over what the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando do.

Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine issued the challenge after Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain gave the party a week to argue for the resumption of its Assembly allowances after he said he was thinking of withholding them for another year.

In a written statement to MPs, Mr Hain said he was considering the move after a report in May by a body which monitors the loyalist and republican ceasefires said the PUP (Progressive Unionist Party) had failed to exert any influence over the UVF and Red Hand Commando.

Mr Hain said: “The (Independent Monitoring) Commission recommended that I should continue the financial measures against the Progressive Unionist Party.

“I have considered carefully the IMC’s report and I have today written to the Progressive Unionist Party to advise them that I am minded to remove for a period of 12 months the party’s entitlement to financial assistance payable to political parties in Northern Ireland.

“I have provided the PUP with seven days from today to make representations to me.

“At the end of that period I will take into account any such representations made to me and will reach a final decision.”

The four member IMC said in its report for the British and Irish governments that the UVF and Red hand Commando remained heavily involved in crime, active as a paramilitary group and violent.

A bitter feud over the past fortnight between the UVF and the Loyalist Volunteer Force in Belfast has put the PUP‘s links again under the spotlight, with nationalist SDLP Assembly member Alban Maginness urging the party yesterday to sever all its ties with paramilitaries.

The feud claimed the life of 20-year-old Craig McCausland in north Belfast last week, whose family has denied he had any link to the LVF or any other terror group, and whose mother, Lorraine, was believed to have been murdered by loyalists in 1987 in a vicious beating near a drinking club.

Earlier this month, 25-year-old Jameson Lockhart was also gunned down as he worked on a building site in east Belfast in an attack also blamed on the UVF.

The UVF was also blamed for a gun attack on a house in the east of the city on Monday night.

Mr Ervine, the PUP‘s sole Assembly member, said today he was willing to meet Mr Hain over the course of the next week.

But he also challenged the British government to have him arrested if it believed the PUP had a say over what the UVF and Red Hand Commando did.

“I am willing to meet the Secretary of State and lay before him the reality of life within the leadership of the PUP who in some people‘s eyes seem to be responsible for all of the things that are wrong in this society,” the East Belfast MLA said.

“The reality is our record speaks for itself – our desires and wishes for Northern Ireland have been well laid out.

“It is against all the tenets of natural justice that people who are not responsible for what paramilitaries do are punished in this way.

“I am the leader of the PUP. If I have broken any laws or rules, I would like to be arrested and charged now.”

Sinn Féin

Published: 20 July, 2005

Sinn Féin General Secretary, Foyle MLA Mitchel McLaughlin has accused Gregory Campbell of peddling lies about the nature of disadvantage, discrimination and unemployment in the Six Counties.

Mr McLaughlin said:

“The DUP are obsessed with peddling lies and myths about the true nature of disadvantage, discrimination and unemployment in the Six Counties.

“There is no question that many in the protestant community are disadvantaged but the reality is that on every single indicator that Catholics face greater disadvantage.

“The facts speak for themselves. 70% of people living in the 10% most deprived wards, as measured by the Noble Index, are Catholic

“The multiple deprivation statistics published in May this year show that West and North Belfast, Derry City, Craigavon and West of the Bann continue to be the most deprived parts of the Six Counties.

“People from the Catholic community are more likely to be unemployed than Protestants. That is also an indisputable fact. Action is required to tackle the unemployment differential between the two communities not the lies peddled by the DUP.

“If we are going to tackle the social and economic problems created by the patterns of economic activity throughout the Six Counties then we need to be honest about what is happening. Ignoring the true extent of the problem will not help us to put in place the long-term solutions required. Telling lies and propagating myths is part of an attempt to stop resources being targeted on the basis of objective need and objective need alone.

“The attempt to rewrite the history of this state and to misrepresent the current reality both feeds into the siege mentality of unionism and undermines the ability of the equality agenda to affect real change that can and should benefit everyone in our society that lives with disadvantage.

“Historic and current patterns of policy and public expenditure show discrimination against the West of the Bann area, the border region and Catholic rural and urban communities. All objective data on disadvantage, poverty and particularly patterns of unemployment, housing and ill health testifies to this reality.” ENDS

Note to Editors

The unemployment rate for Catholic men is 9 per cent compared with 5 per cent for Protestant men. Among women, the unemployment rates are 6 per cent for Catholics and 3 per cent for Protestants. A higher proportion of Catholic than Protestant working age men and women are classified as economically inactive. 24 per cent of Catholic men are economically inactive compared with 18 per cent of Protestant men.

Indicators such as economically inactive rates, the ‘official’ unemployment figures and also at the levels of long-term unemployment, long-term illness and incapacity, and others such as the Noble index of deprivation and indicators of poverty and ill health all correlate. The statistics show that unemployment, ill health and poverty are a bigger problem for the Catholic community.

The monitoring statistics released by the Equality Commission in December show that the Catholic share of the workforce is still below the Catholic proportion of the economically active population. In the Public sector 55.1% of the overall composition is Protestant and 39.8% Catholic while in the Private sector the protestant share is 55.6% protestant and 39.4% catholic.

The composition of the private sector with 26 plus employees also show a pattern of Catholic under-representation. Harland & Wolff employs 12 Catholics and 235 protestants and Shorts Brothers employs only 14.8% Catholics as against some 85.2% Protestants.

The same pattern of under-representation is replicated among government departments, particularly at senior civil service grades. The 2nd Report of the Justice Oversight Commissioner published June 2004 shows that that less than 1 in 4 senior civil servants is Catholic. Across the NIO as a whole, Catholics make up only 28% of the workforce.

At senior civil service grades (5+ and 6/7) there is systematic under representation with less than 25% of all senior grade civil servants coming from a Catholic background, ranging from 15% in the Employment, Trade and Investment Department, 13% in Regional Development to 33% in Education. Given recruitment trends over the last 30 years it would take until 2057 to achieve fair representation.

The Health Department report on Health Inequalities published in May last year show that people living deprived area are a third more likely to die prematurely; 25% more likely to die as an infant; 15% more likely to get cancer; and 25% more likely to be admitted to hospital.

The Housing Executive figures for 2002-03, show that in Belfast the percentage of Catholics on the Housing Executive waiting list for a house was 44%, yet only 28% of those actually allocated a house were Catholic - an ‘under-allocation’ of 16%. Protestants represented 43% of those on the waiting list, but 64% of those allocated a house - an ‘over-allocation’ of 21%.

For the same period (2002-2003) across the north as a whole the percentage of Protestants on the waiting list was 47%, with 54% actually being allocated a house - an over-representation of 7%. For Catholics, the figures were 40% on the waiting list, and 35% actually allocated a house - an under-representation of 5%.

Belfast Telegraph

20 July 2005

SINN Fein councillor Paul Butler has called on the Orange Order not to march through Glenavy in future.

The call came after thousands of Orangemen from the South Antrim combine held their Twelfth of July demonstration in the village.

Mr Butler said the organisation was not welcome as Glenavy was a village where the demography has changed dramatically over the last number of years.

Pointing out he is to raise the matter with the Parades Commission he said: “The Orange Order is insisting on marching through a nationalist area where they are unwelcome and exercising in sectarian coat trailing and triumphalism.”

But a local Orange leader refuted Mr Butler’s remarks, pointing to a peaceful demonstration which was enjoyed by all.

He added that the Sinn Fein’s councillor’s remarks that Glenavy was “predominantly Catholic” were untrue and he said the village was still mostly Protestant.

Belfast Telegraph

By Deborah McAleese
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
20 July 2005

THE Parades Commission is set to make a ruling next week on a controversial republican parade in Ballymena which has sparked warnings of violence.

Unionists have warned that if the parade is given the go-ahead there could be “open violence” on the streets.

Around 650 participants are expected to take part in the parade, which has been organised by the William Orr Commemoration Committee in memory of the United Irishman.

If given the go-ahead it would reportedly be the first ever republican parade in the town.

The Parades Commission is expected to consider the application for the August 9 parade next Wednesday.

PSNI chiefs were warned by a DUP delegation the peace in the town will be “shattered” if republicans are allowed to hold the parade.

Ian Paisley Jnr said the proposal is nothing more than an attempt to “stoke up” tensions in the town.

He warned that if republicans attempt to provoke this tension it will end in “calamity” for someone who will be made a victim of a criminal attack.

Mr Paisley added: “Now we have a real concern that such a parade will lead to open violence in our normally peaceful town.”

Sinn Fein recently had its first ever representative elected to Ballymena Borough Council.

Police patrolled Ballymena Town Hall when 51 year-old Monica Digney attended her first council meeting.

Sectarian tensions in the mainly Protestant town were heightened recently following an attack on the Catholic Harryville Church, which has been the scene of loyalist pickets in previous years.

In the 1990s protesters attempted to stop worshippers getting to the church.

BreakingNews.ie

20/07/2005 - 10:49:53

An electrician charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh bomb was today remanded in custody by Belfast Magistrates.

Sean Gerard Hoey, 35, from Molly Road in Jonesborough, South Armagh will appear again before Belfast magistrates on August 10.

He appeared today by videolink from Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim.

Mr Hoey is the first person to be charged in connection with the 1998 atrocity which devastated Omagh.

He has denied preparing, making, procuring or having anything to do with the Omagh bomb.

BBC

Local people are angry about plans to close police stations

Proposals to close eight police stations in Fermanagh have been criticised at a public meeting.

The meeting in Tempo was the first in a series being held over the next three weeks in each of the towns and villages where stations may close.

Local people said there had not been enough consultation and have called for assurances on policing levels.

However, District Commander Superintendent Clifford Best said there would have to be changes.

“There will be people who will not be happy with some of the decisions that will have to be made, but we have a £13.2m budget to live in within Fermanagh,” he said.

“It is important that I use this budget effectively and efficiently and I employ those resources, irrespective of what those resources are, adequately and for the betterment of the people in the communities.”

Fermanagh has 13 police stations, more than any other District Command Unit in Northern Ireland.

A final decision on the future of the stations will be taken by the Policing Board when it meets on 1 September.

BBC

The mountain offers stunning views of Belfast and beyond

Walkers on Belfast’s Black Mountain are to be offered a glimpse of other worlds - stretching back to the Stone Age.

The Belfast Hills Partnership is to run a “Walking and Talking in the Hills” event on Wednesday.

Terry Enright will trace the mountain’s history from the Mountain Loney to Hatchet Field and Rock Dam.

The walk is free and walkers are asked to meet at 1100 BST at Newhill Youth and Community Centre, Whiterock Road in west Belfast.

This walk marks a ‘rebirth’ for the mountain, which was bought, cared for and opened to the people of Northern Ireland by the National Trust.

As well as the history of this area, there will be opportunities to see and hear about the wildlife that is special to the hills.

The walk is one of a series of events organised by the BHP - a united front representing local councils, government departments, community groups, nature conservation organisations and businesses.

They are all committed to caring for the Belfast hills and their people.

A month ago, the National Trust opened 1,500 acres of moor and heath land to the public.

The hills will be opened up to walkers and sightseers

The trust bought Divis and the Black Mountain last November from the Ministry of Defence.

The trust worked for eight months to secure the property, protect the natural habitat of this unique landscape and provide open access for all.

More than 200 volunteers from the public, private and voluntary sectors were also involved in the work to make the mountains a place for everyone to enjoy.

The National Trust’s aim is to attract 20,000 to 30,000 visitors a year.