Tackling Poverty

Speech by David Ford questions the Finance Minister on Mon 24th Sep 2007

Mr Ford asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to detail the resources he has allocated to tackle rural poverty across Northern Ireland, and to meet the targets set out in 'Lifetime Opportunities: Government's Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy', given the ongoing comprehensive spending review. (AQO 184/08)

Mr P Robinson: The UK comprehensive spending review is due to conclude in October, and will have important implications for us in determining the share of UK public expenditure to be allocated over the next three years to the Executive and Assembly for those public services for which we are responsible.

I have not yet made any resource allocations for consideration by the Executive. Draft spending proposals put forward by Departments as part of the 2007 Budget process were informed by a broad range of issues, including the need to address social exclusion and poverty. I held bilateral meetings with Ministers last week in order to develop a Budget position. That will provide me with a basis to produce spending proposals for individual Departments for discussion and agreement at a subsequent Executive meeting.

Mr Ford: I thank the Minister for his response, although I had hoped for a little more detail. Given that many groups that tackle rural poverty depend on EU peace funding for some of their core activities, does the Minister have any plans to assist those groups in dealing with the reduction in funding from that source?

Mr P Robinson: It is worrying that there are a number of difficulties. Money from Europe will be about half of what it has been in previous years, and the future of a number of worthy projects will have to be considered. However, they must be considered by the Departments taking the respective lead responsibilities; they rank the priority of those projects as against depart­mental commitments, and I, in turn, when examining spending allocations, take account of all of the competitive pressures across all Departments. That is a matter that will be informed both by the Programme for Government and the amounts available to us through the three-year comprehensive spending review period.

The Member heard the Deputy First Minister state his and the First Minister's priority. Poverty must be addressed, and rural poverty is just as real as urban poverty. If we are to mean anything when we say that we want devolution to work, we have to make it work for people in that position.