Cllr Harkin speaks of frustration of Hardship Fund motion being watered down by Council

People Before Profit's Shaun Harkin has hit out at the SDLP, Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionists (UUP) for “weakening” his proposal during last week's Council meeting designed to help bring a solution for Derry's needy.

An emergency meeting of Derry City & Strabane Council was called to discuss the ongoing cost of living crisis that has seen many homes face crippling bills and stark choices such as deciding whether what little money they have goes on food or heat.

The meeting itself was a heated one with Councillors from Aontú and the SDLP carrying the argument over onto social media once it had finished.

There was dissatisfaction from Cllr Harkin who felt his proposal – to use the unspent £3million Covid funding to start up a Hardship Emergency Fund – was watered down by Councillors from other parties.

He said: “The emergency Council meeting on the cost of living crisis underscores the criminally inadequate response from the political establishment.

“We brought forward a proposal for the Council to immediately utilise £3 million unspent Covid funding to initiate a Hardship Emergency Fund.

“If the Stormont Executive parties response to the crisis wasn't so criminally negligent, Derry and Strabane Council wouldn't be forced to look at ways to take radical action.

“In response to the motion, first there was attempt to completely block discussion.

“When we succeeded in getting the motion discussed, the SDLP followed by Sinn Féin attempted to remove the proposal to utilise the unspent £3million.

“Both these attempts were rejected because they would have gutted the original motion.

“A third attempt by the UUP to seriously weaken the proposal was accepted with the support of all the Executive parties on the Council. The political establishment eventually got its way.

“A minority of Councillors opposed this entire charade. We want to thank all the Councillors who stood up to this attempt to steamroll democracy and allow this meeting to be a vanity exercise for Sinn Féin and all Executive parties voting down radical action.

“We commend Derry Against Fuel Poverty for giving expression to the anger many people feel and urge a mass turnout on for the next Cost of Living Crisis protest on April 2.

“In the last couple of weeks Executive parties voted for and then overturned a 10 per cent cut to private rents and voted down legislation that would have strengthened workers ability to demand real pay rises.

“It's a disgrace for the Executive not to be able to utilise hundreds of millions of pounds at its disposal to help people now.

“It's a disgrace the Executive parties, including Sinn Féin, SDLP and Alliance, turned up their nose to a Hardship Emergency protest in December that demanded an urgent set of actions to prepare for the cost of living tsunami.

“It's a disgrace the entire Executive agreed to impose a Tory real terms pay cut on health and social care workers amid a cost of living crisis.

“No one should wait on promises. We urge people to organise and join people power actions now whether on their street, in their workplace or in their city or town centre.

“We need to step up the pressure on every possible front to stand up for workers and the least well-off. No one will do this but ourselves.”

SDLP Councillor, Brian Tierney, hit back by accusing Cllr Harkin for being “more interested in point scoring, waving flags and shouting through a megaphone than coming up with solutions”.

He said: “The SDLP will take no lectures from Cllr Harkin, who didn’t even show up to vote alongside SDLP Councillors against a rates increase for people in our city.

“We are working both locally and at Stormont trying to help people dealing with rising costs in everything from food to fuel. We have called for the £200 energy support payment to be extended to every household and we are currently progressing legislation to unlock the £300m unspent by the Executive to get it out to those who need it.

“Cllr Harkin is more interested in point scoring, waving flags and shouting through a megaphone than coming up with solutions to help our communities deal with this emergency.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin Councillor, Sandra Duffy, stated that the British government needed to step in and take action to help struggling households.

She said: “The special council meeting saw a number of practical measures agreed to ensure people have access to support, including a hardship fund, targeted promotion of existing services, an increased budget for advice services and working with local charities and education providers to explore more support for food programmes and school transport.

“Sinn Féin communities minister Deirdre Hargey has stepped up and delivered a £200 payment to 280,000 people, binned the cruel Tory Bedroom Tax, extended welfare top-up payments and froze rents for people living in Housing Executive homes.

“There is £300 million sitting ready to be spent to put money in the pockets of workers and families to help with rising living costs. That is being blocked by the DUP’s continued selfish boycott of the Executive.

“The British government, who have done little to support families, need to take action by cutting tax on home heating oil, petrol and diesel to cut household bills.

“They should also increase taxes on big corporations who are making a fortune from ordinary people and abandon plans to hike working people’s national insurance payments from April.”

The UUP have been approached for comment but, as yet, have not responded.