Other News In Brief

Significant Funding Needed To Tackle Educational Underachievement – SDLP

Tackling educational underachievement will be impossible without significant funding, SDLP Education Spokesperson Daniel McCrossan has said.

Addressing the publication of a progress report into the 'A Fair Start’ report action plan – which showed that just £2.5m funding was allocated to the project, with £21m recommended by the expert panel behind the report – West Tyrone MLA Mr McCrossan said: "The Fair Start report was commissioned to address long-term problems around educational underachievement across Northern Ireland. A panel of experts came together and produced an excellent report, putting forward a comprehensive plan to deal with these issues and change the educational outcomes for a generation of children and young people.

"While I acknowledge that some progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the report, the fact remains that unless the amount of money allocated to this project is drastically increased we will fail to properly tackle the issues emerging from the report and will miss an important opportunity to give each and every child the best chance of achieving their academic potential.

"The financial pressures at Stormont are disproportionally impacting our children and young people and after the work that went into this report to only allocate 8.4% of the funding asked for is unbelievable. Any further delay on providing the funding required will only result in kicking this can down the road where it will undoubtedly become more expensive to make the changes necessary to tackle academic underachievement.

"Our children cannot continue to pay the price for the political failure that permeates this place, with the Tory government proving repeatedly it cares little about the impact it’s having on communities here. Everyone knows that we can only address these problems with an Executive and Minister in place who will take the drastic action required to provide extra funding to our education sector so that we can finally address this underachievement and ensure every child gets the support they need."

NI Environmental Crisis 'Fuelled By Lack Of Executive – Alliance

The environmental crisis in Northern Ireland is "only being fuelled by lack of Executive", Alliance Environment spokesperson John Blair MLA has said.

Speaking after DAERA missed the deadline to publish its first Environment Improvement Plan, a statutory duty under the UK Environment Act, the South Antrim MLA said: "The crisis facing our environment is only being accelerated and exacerbated by the lack of a functioning Executive to drive change.

"The RSPB's State of Nature report has already highlighted that Northern Ireland's natural habitat is under threat, with 11% of our species being threatened with extinction, and our woodland coverage being amongst the lowest in Europe. We are not on track to rectify this in accordance with urgent environmental and climate need.

"Now we have another failure from DAERA to publish a key document which only further highlights how Northern Ireland is lagging behind on its environmental commitments. There is seriously no time for delay.

"Whilst I realise DAERA intends to launch the Environment Strategy in the near future, there remains a need for Assembly scrutiny, the engagement of the Assembly Environment Committee, and the lead which should be given by an appointed Minister."

GP Cuts Putting More Pressure On Health Service – SF

Cuts to specialist GP services will put more pressure on the health service, Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon has said.

The party’s health spokesperson said: "The GP Elective Care Service was helping to tackle some of the waiting lists in our health service by providing procedures in dermatology, gynaecology and minor surgery.

"This cut in funding will put even more pressure on the health service and increase waiting lists at a time when it is already in crisis.

"I have written to the Department of Health to raise my concern over the impact this will have on patients.

"This is yet another symptom of the damage that one party’s blockade of the Assembly is doing to deepen the crisis in our health service.

"Fixing the problems in our health service must be the collective priority. No more delays. Sinn Féin is ready to work together with others today to restore the Executive."