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: