Northern Ireland Assembly

Part of the debate – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 3:00 pm on 6 March 2012.

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Photo of Dolores Kelly Dolores Kelly Social Democratic and Labour Party 3:00, 6 March 2012

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Last week, the Community Relations Council published a report that tells us in very stark terms the challenges that face this Executive and Assembly. Children are living in poverty and in poor conditions, where poverty and deprivation levels are increasing, older people are suffering from poverty and sectarianism remains a challenge. The welfare reforms that are envisaged by the Westminster Government will hit young people particularly hard. They will have less opportunity for access to good housing and housing that is conducive to learning, given that even though they may wish to live alone, many of those young people may be forced into shared accommodation and, perhaps, will not have much control over who they will have to share that accommodation with.

People who come here to look at whether they are going to invest and create jobs in the North talk about the skills, educational attainment and attitude of our workforce. Unfortunately, the Executive, who have placed the economy at the heart of the Programme for Government for the second time, are continuing to fail the workforce and not deliver. I accept that there is a worldwide recession, but —