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

Sinn Féin hold first meeting with Castlereagh Council representatives

Published: 13 September, 2007

South Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey yesterday led a Sinn Féin delegation to meet with representatives of Castlereagh Borough Council to discuss council employment figures.


The South Belfast MLA said,

"Sinn Féin has, for some time now, raised our concerns about the employment figures at Castlereagh Borough Council. Just last year a report by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) highlighted that Castlereagh Council had the second worst employment rate of all the councils in the North, with just 8.8% of the workforce being Catholic.


"Yesterday's meeting was the first time that we have met with representatives of the council. The meeting was extremely useful. We raised our concerns while the council representatives used the opportunity to appraise us of the efforts being made to ensure that the council represents all of the people of Castlereagh.


"While we believe that there is much work to be done, both in tackling the employment differentials in the council workforce and in making sure that they council is seen to represent the whole community, we have to acknowledge that much good work is being done and is planned for the future.


"For our part we look forward to working with the council in tackling these issues and we trust that this is just the first meeting in this process".

CRÍOCH