Ní Chuilín calls on community to support housing campaign

North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín called on the community as a whole to come out and support the Stand Up for North Belfast’ housing campaign for equality in North Belfast.
“So far what we have received is not good enough and what we need is the support of the people to show we won't settle for these inequalities any longer,” said Carál.
The republican representative’s comments came after the housing campaign took to the streets in their fight for equality.
With banners and placards, housing campaigners stopped traffic at the Donegall Street/Carrickhill junction in a bid to drum up support for their cause.
Outraged by the Planning Service’s decision to give the green light to 226 high-rise private apartments on the Donegall Street car park organisers said the protest was only the beginning of a relentless campaign.

Ní Chuilín wants answers regarding job loses
Meanwhile Carál Ní Chuilín called on the First and deputy First Ministers and Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie to justify the last-minute decision to axe five invaluable North Belfast community jobs.
Slamming the two Assembly departments in charge of allocating funding for North Belfast's Community Empowerment Partnerships (CEP), Carál said the ministers must justify the logic behind the decision to axe funding for the five posts.
The four communications workers from Ligoniel, New Lodge, Cliftonville and Ardoyne have been chopped while Ardoyne's education outreach worker post has also been terminated. Despite having been on protective notice since April when the North Belfast Community Action Unit (NBCAU) first announced jobs were to be axed, CEP staff believed their posts would be safe for at least a year as they were officially due to wind up in August 2009,
“There is something wrong with a process where groups are asked to submit new and revised plans and are then told they aren't getting new funding anyway, and I want to know what went wrong here,” said the republican representative.
“The CEPs do vital work in North Belfast yet important jobs have just been axed and I want to know the rationale behind the decision.
“This whole process clearly needs scrutinised and the North Belfast community and these invaluable workers deserve answers.”
Originally set up following the Holy Cross blockades of 2001, CEPs were intended to build community confidence and morale.