Stormont Establishment Driving Up The Cost Of Living
Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD and Aontú Deputy Leader Cllr Denise Mullen have criticised the Stormont Establishment for driving up the cost of living, increasing poverty and inequality, and with wages stagnating.
Cllr Mullen: “35% spike in gas prices. 10% increase in house prices. 10% hike in electricity prices. Stagnating wages. Increasing inequality and poverty. That is the record of the Stormont Establishment parties in government. Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance, the DUP and the UUP have an overwhelming majority in the Assembly to improve the lot of the people in the North – but continuously fail to do so. There are now cutbacks to the Universal Credit potentially plunging 11,000 children into poverty, whilst the cost of a school uniform is a barrier to education. The bread and butter issues that matter and the needs of our communities play second fiddle to partisanship and politics. It really is time for the Stormont Establishment to wake up.”
An Teachta Tóibín: “What has become glaringly apparent is that all the parties currently in the Stormont Executive do not have solutions to the issues facing the North. These parties have the full resources and authority to support those most in need, but instead we are seeing increasing rates of poverty and inequality in households across the North. We need radical change in the North. We need a return to bread and butter activism to improve quality of life on offer in the North. We are calling on the DUP, SF, the SDLP, UUP and the Alliance to start focus of the ensure that we really develop an enterprise culture in the north, that ordinary people can make a living and that their wages are more than sufficient to cover the cost of living .”