Belfast Alliance Councillor Maíre Hendron has called on the Stormont Executive to do more to support the Citizens Advice Bureau because it will have very important role in helping people during these difficult economic times. Her call comes as £10 million was provided for the CAB in England and Wales, but no such funding has yet been announced for the CAB in Northern Ireland.
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South Belfast Alliance MLA Anna Lo is organising a constituency surgery for carers in her office on Friday 5 December. The session will be taking place from 11am until 1pm at her office at 88 University Street, and she will be joined on the day by an expert from Carers Northern Ireland. Friday 5 December is International Carers Day and Anna Lo is organizing the surgery to mark the event.
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Alliance South Belfast MLA Anna Lo has described the discovery of blast bombs in Bentham Drive, off the Donegall Road on Tuesday night as a remnant of the past.
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Last week, local MLA David Ford joined Mr Jim Stewart, Chair of the Northern Health & Social Care Trust (NHSCT) on a surprise visit to two wards in Antrim Hospital as part of Mr Stewart’s ongoing campaign to ensure the highest hygiene standards are maintained.
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North Down Deputy Mayor Ian James Parsley and Alderman Marsden Fitzsimons have said they are appalled by vandalism against the Parish Church in the village of Groomsport.
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Alliance Party Finance Spokesperson, Stephen Farry MLA, has welcomed a commitment from the Finance Minister, Nigel Dodds, towards the prompt payment of invoices from small businesses within a 10 day framework. The current target within Northern Ireland is 30 days. He had raised the matter through Assembly Questions and via the Finance Committee. However, he has questioned the delay in introducing this initiative in Northern Ireland given that the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson made a similar commitment regarding the UK Government’s payments in October.
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Alliance Youth secretary Michael Bower has praised police in rescuing two victims of human trafficking in the greater Belfast area, but has warned that this is a growing trend which requires more investment of police resources.
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Alliance Leader David Ford MLA has welcomed the announcements from the Executive meeting for the green light for the Titanic signature project and E-Way transport project.
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Alliance Youth secretary Michael Bower has expressed outrage at the terrorist attacks that started last night in Mumbai.
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Lagan Valley Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn has called on the Stormont Executive to make progress on the 11-plus and fuel poverty in their meeting tomorrow and said the public cannot be left waiting any longer on these issues.
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East Antrim Alliance MLA Seán Neeson has said he hopes that a pipe bomb find in Newtownabbey is not a sign that tension is going to increase in the area. Five large pipe bombs and ammunition were found at a house in the Carmeen Drive area just after 9.30pm last night.
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Alliance Party Education Spokesperson Trevor Lunn MLA has said his party would help deliver an Irish Language Act, but only if it came at no expense to the public purse and served to promote, rather than politicize the language.
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Alliance Sustainability Spokesperson Cllr Alan Lawther has labelled the SDLP’s approach on rural planning hypocritical, given the stance they have on environmental protection. Mr Lawther said that the SDLP’s environmental credentials had been damaged by their position on PPS 21. The new PPS 21 policy is being discussed in the Assembly today and the SDLP last week.
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Alliance Party Finance Spokesperson Stephen Farry MLA has welcomed the £20bn fiscal stimulus but contrasted the decisive leadership of the British Government to the relative inactivity of the Stormont Executive.
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18 months ago the Executive made the economy its ‘number one priority’. Since then, we have seen a banking crisis, a credit crunch and a business downturn. I have to admit, reluctantly, that this may not be entirely the Executive’s fault!
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Alliance Party Justice Spokesperson, Stephen Farry MLA, has expressed his sympathy to the families of the four police officers killed in a road accident in South Down this morning.
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East Belfast Alliance Councillor Mervyn Jones has hit out at those who burgled the house of two women, one in her 80s and the other in her 90s. The incident took place in Parkgate Avenue, Ballyhackamore at around 9pm last night and both women were left shaken but unhurt.
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Following the Stormont Executive’s first meeting in five months, Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn threw down the gauntlet to Ministers to start ending segregation. He said it is disgraceful that frontline health services are being cut to make efficiencies, yet the Executive still sees fit to waste £1 billion every year on maintaining a divided society.
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Alliance Party MLA, Stephen Farry, has slammed SDLP proposals for turning the Irish Language into a divisive bureaucratic burden, and highlighted the significant cost implications for both the public and private sectors of their plans.
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Alliance Leader David Ford is pleased the Executive has met again but stated it needs to do much work to prove it will provide stability and delivery for local people during these tough economic times. Alliance has called for extra Assembly sittings in the coming months so that more Executive work can be done to respond to public’s real needs.
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