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26/05/2015
DUP Urged To Reconsider Time Frame For Welfare Reform Bill
The SDLP is urging the DUP to reconsider the time frame for the Welfare Reform Bill to allow for more "meaningful negotiation".
Deputy Leader Dolores Kelly said that the SDLP will not be complicit in the Tory attack on vulnerable people by supporting the bill in its current form.
She said: "We have not come to our decisions lightly, but we cannot be complicit in the Tory party's morally unjustifiable attack on the most vulnerable and marginalised.
"The SDLP sought to amend the Bill. We tabled over 30 amendments and all were rejected by the DUP and Sinn Féin, but we welcome Sinn Féin eventually following us on welfare reform.
"I, like many others, do not know why Sinn Féin was so slow to acknowledge that the vulnerable would not be protected under the Welfare Reform Bill. Those were some of the very amendments that we sought to enshrine in the legislation and that they voted down. We wanted those in statute, not in guidance or regulations."
She continued: "My party and I recognise the difficulties in setting a Budget and the time constraints that we work within, but it is not yet too late for all parties to address the concerns about welfare reform that we each have."
(CD)
Deputy Leader Dolores Kelly said that the SDLP will not be complicit in the Tory attack on vulnerable people by supporting the bill in its current form.
She said: "We have not come to our decisions lightly, but we cannot be complicit in the Tory party's morally unjustifiable attack on the most vulnerable and marginalised.
"The SDLP sought to amend the Bill. We tabled over 30 amendments and all were rejected by the DUP and Sinn Féin, but we welcome Sinn Féin eventually following us on welfare reform.
"I, like many others, do not know why Sinn Féin was so slow to acknowledge that the vulnerable would not be protected under the Welfare Reform Bill. Those were some of the very amendments that we sought to enshrine in the legislation and that they voted down. We wanted those in statute, not in guidance or regulations."
She continued: "My party and I recognise the difficulties in setting a Budget and the time constraints that we work within, but it is not yet too late for all parties to address the concerns about welfare reform that we each have."
(CD)
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