NIreland Church leaders bring welfare worries to Westminster
Northern Ireland has one of the highest incidents of children living in poverty in
Europe. In one year alone (2009-2010) 14 thousand children fell below the poverty.
This is just one of the issues that motivated the leaders of the four largest Irish
Churches to travel together to Westminster this week, to express their ‘grave concern’
over the impact of proposed welfare reforms on the most vulnerable in Northern Ireland
The
UK Welfare Reform Bill, currently passing through its final stages in the Houses of
Parliament, will slash an estimated 600 million pounds per year by 2014-15 from Northern
Ireland’s spending allowances for the weakest sectors of its society.
“As Christian
leaders we feel we have a responsibility to speak up for the most vulnerable in our
society and for those in our congregations, especially children and their families
who will be pushed even further into poverty by some of these reforms”, says Cardinal
Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. He travelled together
with Archbishop Alan Harper, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, Reverend Ivan
Patterson, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and President of the Methodist
Church in Ireland, Reverend Ian Henderson to meet with Minister for Welfare Reform,
Lord David Freud.
Cardinal Seán Brady says: “There is a lot of talk these days
about a shared future in Northern Ireland. Well, the terrible reality is that all
traditions in Northern Ireland share some of the highest levels of child poverty,
fuel poverty, disability and unemployment levels on these islands”.
“Today
we are taking a united stand as Church leaders to say 'give us a shared future which
is a better future, not one that pushes Northern Ireland further back as the most
impoverished region of the UK!’ We are at a critical stage of the journey to peace
and a shared future in Northern Ireland. We need investment for peace, stability
and growth, not measures that leave tens of thousands of our young people without
hope or a stake in a better future. We know that our local politicians could take
their own decisions on this matter but we want to support them in making the case
to Westminster that Northern Ireland does have unique circumstances and that these
differences deserve to be taken into account.”
Listen to Emer McCarthy’s full
interview with Cardinal Brady: