Threats to community groups are contemptible - Kelly

North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly has slammed the threats made by Continuity IRA against community groups working with statutory bodies in North Belfast.
Speaking a short while after the threats were made to Ashton Centre in the New Lodge and Wolfhill Community Centre in Ligoniel Gerry Kelly the threats are against the entire community.
"The threats are apparently in relation to the community sector in north Belfast holding multi-agency meetings in order to address pressing issues facing local people,” said Gerry Kelly.
“To have these threats made against them while they are working hard to improve the quality of life for people living in these neighbourhoods is contemptible.
“In short, these groups are now threatening the entire community. These community centres are at the heart of the localities they work in, and offer services that people of all ages and from all sections of the community use.
“They are well established and have on their premises facilities such as crèches, mother and toddler groups, after school clubs and senior citizen groups. Is there anyone who isn't on the target list?
“These threats must be lifted immediately. Those who have made them have no support whatsoever and these threats highlight what we already know, that these groups have no logical political direction or programme,” said the North Belfast MLA.
Community groups from throughout Belfast came together the Friday after the threats were issued in a show of solidarity with those threatened and in a call for the threats to be lifted.
At the meeting in the UNISON building on York Street, JJ Magee called for the immediate withdrawal of the threats.
“The Ashton was driven forward at a time when there was systematic British government denial of opportunity and resources into our community. We however did something about it,” said Magee.
“The Ashton building was financed through a community share scheme, it is owned by the community. We have struggled to access resources while also standing firm against all forms of injustice, coercion and discrimination.
“The Ashton Centre provides services right across the North Belfast community from Whitewell to Ardoyne and from New Lodge to Mount Vernon.
“Presently the Ashton Centre employs over 100 people and provides childcare places for hundreds of young children. This facilitates parents to return to work.
“Ashton also works with victims and the long-term unemployed while also providing educational pathways for thousands of people and contributes significantly to the local economy. On behalf of the Board I want to pay tribute to all our staff and all those community workers who refuse to be deflected from their services to our community at this difficult and challenging time for them and their families.
“Their courage is an inspiration to us all. The Ashton vision stands in marked contrast to the vision of the faceless people who have issued this threat,” said the Ashton Centre representative.
“Ashton will not be detracted from our mission of serving all communities. I stand here today to bring my voice and the voice of the Ashton Community Trust demanding that the Continuity IRA immediately and unconditionally withdraw this threat.”

NíSinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín and Agnes Fraser of Tar Isteach met with th Chuilín tells gas suppliers punitive rate of debt recovery is unrealistic

Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín and Agnes Fraser of Tar Isteach met with the CEO of Phoenix Gas recently to discuss concerns at high rates of debt recovery, in some cases up to £30 a week before a home gets one unit of gas.
Carál Ní Chuilín called on vulnerable people in fuel poverty not to let themselves be exploited by criminals offering to tamper with their gas supply.
“This is an extremely dangerous and lives are being put at risk with this practice,” says Carál.
Carál Ní Chuilín said that utility suppliers such as Phoenix should respond to the cuts in oil prices as many people in North Belfast are been forced to live without heat during the current cold spell.
“We are calling for gas suppliers like Phoenix to cut their bills when the oil prices fall just as quickly as they increase the bills when the oil prices rise,” said Carál.
“We welcome the pilot scheme which Phoenix have introduced to deal with those who have fallen into the trap of tampering with meters.
“However, we told Phoenix’s CEO in a recent meeting that we are concerned at the excessively high rate of recovery of the debt, in some cases people are being forced to pay up to £30 a week before their home gets even one unit of gas.
“We are extremely disappointed that our concerns were listened to but not taken into account. It is right that people should pay for the gas they have used and we would warn people that tampering with the supply is putting people and their kids’ lives at serious risk.
“But if Phoenix Gas think that this punitive rate of recovery of the money is realistic then Sinn Féin and advice workers are saying that you are forcing people into crisis upon crisis and into the hands of money lenders and unmanageable debt.”
Local advice worker Agnes Fraser said she felt that nothing had been achieved in the meeting.
“This is like something from a Dickens novel. I don’t think we achieved anything from the meeting despite making it clear that people in extreme poverty were being exploited.”
NIE have a max rate for those on benefit of £8.5 per week when recovering debt and Carál added:
“We will be raising this issue in the Assembly and it seems logical that there should be uniform regulation across all utility providers to cover these circumstances.”

Kelly describes agreement on transfer of powers on Policing and Justice as significant

North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly has described the agreement between Sinn Féin and the DUP on transfer of Powers and Policing and Justice as significant.
“This is a significant agreement and follows on from very detailed and considerable hard work in recent months and weeks,” said the Republican representative.
“The agreement deals with the issue of transfer of powers on Policing and Justice in a comprehensive fashion; the detail of which is contained in the joint letter to AERC; in the Process Paper, and in the statements from the Joint First Ministers.
“Taken with the agreement between Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson in July we believe this is the basis on which all the publicly expressed concerns about policing and justice powers will be resolved, including who will be the Justice Minister.
“Sinn Féin and the DUP have also agreed how we will tackle a number of uncontentious but very important issues, such as hardship relief and economic matters.
“A number of social, economic and culture matters, including for example Acht na Gaeilge and post Primary Education, continue to be work in progress.
“We have also agreed that the Executive will meet this Thursday 20th November and Ministers will also discuss the first draft of a paper detailing measures to deal with the financial hardship being faced by many people and related matters, issues which we have been in discussions with the British government on resolving.
“Sinn Féin has been consistent in all of this, the Executive and other political institutions must operate on the basis of equality and partnership.
“We believe these agreements are capable of gaining the confidence of the community.”

Attack on New Lodge man’s home an attack on the whole community – Kelly

Sinn Féin MLA for North Belfast Gerry Kelly has described the attack on the home of New Lodge community worker Gerry O’Reilly in the early hours of Monday morning 17 November as an attack on the whole community.
"I condemn wholeheartedly the early morning attack on the home of Gerry O’Reilly and his family,” said Gerry.
“Gerry O'Reilly is a highly respected community worker who has done sterling work to help bring calm to interfaces in the area as well as striving to make the New Lodge a safer place for all to live in.
“He has worked closely with youths from right across the community and he is widely known for the work he carries out.
“This makes the attack on him and his family even more reprehensible.
"In all, those responsible for this despicable and cowardly attack, smashed 14 windows in his home and his car around 4am this morning.
"This attack is not only an attack on Gerry and his family but an attack on the entire community.
“I believe that it was carried out by a very small group of people who have been torturing the local community.
“They will not be allowed to deflect the great work being carried out by Gerry O’Reilly and others to help improve the lives of local people."

Once in a lifetime opportunity to tackle legacy of deprivation

By North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín
This week a Sinn Féin delegation from North Belfast met with the inister for social development Margaret Ritchie and her officials to raise our concerns about the development of the Girdwood site.
Junior Minister in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, Gerry Kelly MLA, North Belfast constituency manager Shauneen Baker and myself had asked for the meeting to discuss the huge potential of the 20-acre former British Army barracks for the people of North Belfast.
Sitting just one mile from Belfast city centre, bordered by the Crumlin Road Gaol and Belfast Courthouse sites, and the Mater Hospital, Girdwood offers the people of North Belfast a once in a lifetime opportunity to help tackle decades of social and economic deprivation, underinvestment and discrimination.
In my view it is imperative that any plan for the site tackles objective need in the community.
It must also take into account the wishes of local people as expressed time and time again during the consultations which shaped the draft masterplan and during the Equality Impact Assessment currently being carried out.
Sinn Féin believes that any development at Girdwood must begin to tackle the problems of chronic housing shortage and leisure provision in the north of the city.
However, the site can also play a key role in health and education provision while providing employment, apprenticeships and training for local people.
The development of the Girdwood/Crumlin Road Gaol site also opens up new possibilities for North Belfast in the area of tourism.
It is our opinion that the development of the site must be underpinned by equality, addressing the varied and different needs of the communities who live in the surrounding area.
On that basis the development of the site should be a win-win for all the people of North Belfast.
Girdwood offers a unique opportunity to the minister to tackle inequalities while creating a flagship development which delivers the services required by the people of North Belfast.
This can be a shining example to the rest of the people of this city of just how much can be achieved if the political will is there to do it.
While work on the site may take several years to complete when the development gets the green light it is vital that the minister makes the right decisions now.
We believe that this week’s meeting was a positive step forward towards achieving a first class multi-use development at a place which was only associated with the torture of Republican detainees from the early ‘70s onwards.
I particularly welcome the minister’s assertion that at the core of any future development of Girdwood is the delivery of housing and services based on objective need.
We look forward on that basis to future engagements with the minister and her department to ensure that Girdwood does indeed deliver on its real potential for all of us who live here.

Bobby Sands Trust website relaunched

North Belfast republicans, former IRA POW Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane and North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín, also a former POW, helped to re-launch the Bobby Sands Trust website in the Felon’s club recently.
“I think that the work done by the Bobby Sands Trust, which deals with the prison struggles in Armagh and in the H Blocks of Long Kesh, is hugely important and significant," said Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams at the re-launch.
The Sinn Féin President dedicating the site to the memories of the ten H-Block martyrs and to Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg who died on hunger strike in prison in England.
Speaking at the event, Danny Morrison, Sinn Féin's director of publicity of during the harrowing period of the hunger strike and secretary of the Trust, explained:
“The Bobby Sands Trust was set up in 1981 before the deaths of the hunger strikers and it collected Bobby's writings from the period in order to keep his memory, and that of his comrades, alive and in the public record,” said Danny.
He said the site has become a prestigious international resource documenting the prison struggle and is now complete with multimedia, including TV media footage from the period, and the poetry and songs Sands wrote in Long Kesh.
Morrison said the Trust aims to archive the full history, poetry and music of the Irish republican struggle in prison since the United Irishmen, and that of prison protests from other anti-imperialist struggles around the world.
Morrison and Adams also praised the foresight of Tom Hartley, who diligently collected and archived the communication coming out of the H Blocks at the time of the hunger strike, which are now at the National Library in Dublin.

Speaking at the launch, Adams said: “There is an enduring interest in the human aspect, the political impact and the legacy of the hunger strike – from students, from people around the world who may have no connection with Ireland and from young people who had not even been born at the time.
“The criminalisation policy of the British government, which aimed to crush the national struggle in Ireland, didn't take into account the individual responses of republican activists.
“It didn't take into account the response of Ciaran Nugent, who refused to wear the prison uniform. And it didn't take into account the determined response of the young prisoners who made the ultimate sacrifice to expose the criminalisation policy as a lie.”
Adams explained that the Bobby Sands Trust ‘means that those who want to learn about aspects of the situation at that time are now able to read, in the words of those who were involved then, their thoughts and ideas and fears and hopes, and then to be able to form their own judgements based upon all the information provided’.

To view the redesigned Bobby Sands Trust website, visit www.bobbysandstrust.com.

Sinn Féin MLAs have positive meaning with Ritchie

North Belfast's two Sinn Féin assembly members Gerry Kelly and Carál Ní Chuilín along party Constituency Manager for North Belfast Shauneen Baker met with the North’s minister for social development Margaret Ritchie this week to discuss future developments planned for North Belfast.
The republican representatives said the meeting, which focused mainly on plans to revitalise the former British Army Barracks Girdwood.
“This was a positive meeting in regards to the future development of North Belfast," said Gerry Kelly.
"One of the key factors in this is the future development of the 26 acre site at the Girdwood.”
Carál Ní Chuilín said Sinn Féin had obtained a commitment from the minister that any services put on the site would be based on objective need.
“Anything along those lines will be delivered on objective need and that includes leisure, social housing, business investments and health,” said Carál.
The Sinn Fein delegation stressed it was important to cut down on ‘red tape’ and get on with the job of delivering services.
“The minister was willing to hear the merits in our argument that one over-arching consultation should be done, so that everyone can feed into the one discussion at the same time,” said Gerry Kelly.
“People are fed up with consultations, they need delivery and people on the ground need to see developments.
“They need to see change and that change is going to be delivered on objective need, and the minister needs to be supported in doing that.
“We need to make sure all the needs of the community are met, no matter how varied they are. Margaret Ritchie is the minister for Social Development and she is the person responsible for making that happen.”