Long-awaited Stormont anti-poverty plan criticised as ‘underwhelming'
A long-awaited Stormont plan to target poverty has been criticised as 'underwhelming'.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons launched an extended 14-week public consultation on the Executive's Anti-Poverty Strategy 2025-35 on Tuesday.
He described it as being based on three pillars of minimising risks of falling into poverty, minimising the impact of poverty on people's lives and working to help people get out of poverty.
Figures indicated that around 18% of those in Northern Ireland live in relative poverty, and 15% live in absolute poverty, with 25% of children living in relative poverty and 21% of children living in absolute poverty.
The strategic commitments from across departments include continuing the Extended Schools Programme, working with partners to scope out an NI Debt Relief Scheme, a commitment to develop an Executive Disability Strategy and a Fuel Poverty Strategy.
Speaking in the Assembly, Mr Lyons described a 'legacy of delay' in taking forward an anti-poverty strategy.
'When I took office, I made it clear that one of my priorities would be tackling poverty,' he told MLAs.
'After a legacy of delay in taking this work forward, I wanted to work at pace to develop a strategy which could help make a meaningful difference to those experiencing socio-economic disadvantage in our society.
'I and my Executive colleagues have worked to develop a strategy which we will make progress against and can and will make a difference to people's lives.
'This strategy is the culmination of considerable hard work, collaboration and co-design, and I want to thank all those stakeholders, in particular the members of the anti-poverty co-design group, who have worked with my department in providing their input.
'We often hear about the silo approach in government, but I know that ministers and officials across the executive departments have worked together on the draft in a spirit of co-operation and collective ownership.'
He added that targets will come later with an action plan.
Mark H Durkan from the official Opposition at Stormont described the document as 'underwhelming'.
He contended it didn't just 'call into question the Executive's ability to tackle poverty', but also their appetite and ambition to do so.
Mr Lyons hit back, claiming Mr Durkan was 'wrong on every point that he made'.
'It has been 17 years that we have been waiting for this document, and after 17 months in office, I have been able to bring this forward,' he said.
Save the Children NI head Peter Bryson also criticised the strategy.
'This document raises serious questions about the Executive's commitment to children, families and communities impacted by poverty,' he said.
'It has no clear priorities, budget, action plan, milestones, or accountability for its delivery. It recycles existing commitments, with no real clear link drawn to a deeply flawed description of the current drivers of poverty.'
He said the Executive could have 'opted for a big, bold move like introducing a child payment to lift thousands of children out of poverty'.
'Or strengthened an existing policy like the Childcare Subsidy Scheme to help more families with the cost of childcare access work,' he said.
'Or it could simply have committed to bring together departments, local councils and trusts, organisations working to combat poverty, and children, families and communities experiencing poverty, to work together to address poverty.
'Again, we have to ask, how has a document with no measures to reach its ambition been signed off?'
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