A Damning Verdict on Northern Ireland's Long-Awaited Anti-poverty Strategy

It has taken almost 19 years to produce, but today the Executive's new draft Anti-Poverty Strategy has been dismissed as not being worth the paper it is written on.

Northern Ireland Living in Relative Poverty
The latest figures show that 335,000 people in Northern Ireland are living in relative poverty after housing costs, almost as many as the entire population of the city of Belfast.

Key Pillars of the Strategy
The 32-page document produced by the Department for Communities is built on three key pillars: minimising the risks of falling into poverty, minimising the impacts of poverty, and supporting people to exit poverty. However, it contains no clear priorities, has not been costed, and does not contain performance indicators to measure its success.

Criticism from Save the Children NI
Speaking after the document was published, Peter Bryson, head of Save the Children NI, said it raises serious questions about the Executive's commitment to children, families, and communities impacted by poverty. '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.'

Calls for Change
Head of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in Northern Ireland, Ursula O'Hare, called on the Executive to set tangible targets for the reduction of poverty. 'After waiting almost 20 years, this strategy published today gets the Executive out of the starting blocks but it can't be the summit of the Executive's ambition for reducing poverty in Northern Ireland.'