‘Community sector counting the cost of Stormont failure’ – McNulty | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

‘Community sector counting the cost of Stormont failure’ – McNulty

justin4SDLP MLA for Newry and Armagh Justin McNulty has claimed the community sector is already counting the cost of the failure to reach a political agreement at Stormont.

He was speaking after meeting with Seamus McAleavey, Chief Executive of NICVA as well as individual representatives of the community and voluntary sector locally.


 

Speaking to Newry Times, McNulty said, “The community and voluntary sector provide many vital front line services in our community and work across sectors from health, education and community development.

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25th March 2017“40,000 people are employed by organisations in the sector across the North and many of those organisations locally are facing an uncertain future. This is not about Tory Cuts, it’s about the failure of people and parties to get their act together.


 

“There are hundreds of people across Newry and Armagh employed in the community and voluntary sector and I am aware of some organisations who have had to put their staff on protective redundancy notice in order to protect both the employer and employee.

“Many organisations have been given verbal assurances that their funding ‘should be ok’ however they have nothing in writing to confirm their future funding in the short to medium term. This is just not sustainable. Even the best financially resourced group in the community and voluntary sector has very limited cash reserves,” he insisted.


 

“In recent days Permanent Secretaries from various government departments have sought to reassure the sector and have advised some of them that their funding had been extended for a further three months. But this is not good enough and just adds to an atmosphere of instability and a growing unease within the sector.

“Devolved government is supposed to be about local representatives taking responsibility for local decision making. The very real fear within the sector is that any further delay and failure at Stormont will mean services in communities will end, jobs will be lost and communities will suffer.

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25th March 2017 Box AdvertThe local MLA added, “They are sending a message loud and clear, get on with it, get on with government.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=60045

Posted by on Apr 11 2017. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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