Poverty figures show that North Belfast needs balanced investment - Ní Chuilín

North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín said the figures released that North Belfast working-class communities are at the top of the north's poverty league were proof of the Assembly's continuing failure to address "chronic" need in North Belfast.

According to the most recent deprivation figures, a section of nationalist North Belfast is the fifth most deprived small area in the whole of the north.
Parts of the New Lodge are ranked fifth in the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation 2010 study while part of Ardoyne is the ninth most deprived small area in the north.
New Lodge and Ardoyne were split into three separate sections for the purpose of the statistics. All three Super Output Areas (SOAs) of the New Lodge were ranked in the top 15 most deprived small areas in the north.
The remaining two SOAs of Ardoyne were ranked 42nd and 43rd in the table of the north's 100 most deprived small areas.

"The bottom line is that we need balanced investment because any investment in the city goes to south and east despite the chronic need in North Belfast and these deprivation figures show the devastating consequences this is having," said Ní Chuilín.
"Resources need to be distributed according to objective need and if that was the case, North Belfast wouldn't have such high suicide rates, poor health stats and low educational qualifications."