South and East Belfast Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

British Government failing to reach targets on Child poverty

Published: 23 May, 2007

South Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey has reacted to a new report by the charity Barnardos on child poverty that found that if the British Government is to succeed in its efforts to get one million children out of deprivation by the end of the decade they will have to spend an extra £3.8billion.


The South Belfast MLA said,

"Over recent weeks there have been a number of reports published by various charities all of which have flagged up that unless there is a change in policy and the proper funding provided the British Government it will not hit its own target of halving child poverty by the year 2010"


"Today's report by Barnardos found that there would need to be the extra expenditure of £3.8billion to reach those targets and that while the number of children living in poor families fell slowly but steadily in the late 1990s, progress has now stalled"


"The government needs to get real if they are to tackle the issue of child poverty head on. They can squander billions of pounds on fanciful projects but there is a battle a day to try and get government bodies to direct money to where it is needed for core frontline services".

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