SDLPY Chair Cllr Matthew McDermott was part of an SDLP delegation that met with Irish Environment Minister, John Gormley TD to discuss North South arrangements, Climate Change and the SDLPY campaign “The Countdown is on” regarding international climate talks in Copenhagen.

The delegation included Chair of Assembly Environment Committee Dolores Kelly MLA, Chair of the Assembly Enterprise Trade and Investment Committee Alban Maguinness MLA and Chair of SDLPY Cllr Matthew McDermott.  

After the meeting Cllr McDermott said, ‘ The SDLP pushed the Minister to press the DUP and SF to have Climate Change included on the agenda of North South meetings. As it is not on the agenda it can’t be discussed at these meetings, which is an absurd situation.

‘ The go slow approach of the two ruling parties is unacceptable; if we don’t act on climate change now, future generations face disaster in so many ways.

Regarding the SDLPY campaign Cllr McDermott said, ‘ Climate Change is the most important issue facing my generation and the agreement being sought in Copenhagen in December is crucial. I outlined to the Minister that SDLPY will be rolling out a campaign throughout November, visiting our schools and seeking signatures to an online petition from our students, of all ages.

‘ These are the people that generally don’t have a vote but want a voice. The petition will be calling for a 40% cut in emissions by 2025 and an assistance fund for developing countries to adopt. It will be delivered to the Irish and British governments before they embark for Copenhagen.

Please click on image above to see (better quality) poster.

You are invited to a public meeting to discuss the current chaos in our education system.

Balmoral Hotel, Dunmurry
Tuesday 30 June
6.30pm

Panellists:

• Alex Attwood SDLP
• Paul Butler SF
• Olwin Frost Principal Oakwood IPS
• Sinead Beare Principal Christ The Redeemer PS
• Tony Gallagher QUB

SDLP members of the Youth Services Committee of the Belfast Education and Library Board today opposed the Board’s budget proposals for 2009/20010 which will mean St Theresa’s, Clonard and John Paul II Youth Club will all lose their second youth workers.

The SDLP was the only party to oppose these cutbacks.

Cllr Tim Attwood said: “Yet again, we have witnessed front line youth services in areas of need being cutback. The responsibility for this dreadful situation lies with the Department of Education. The real losers in this situation are the young people in Belfast.”

Cllr Pat Convery said: “Year on year the youth services budget has been reduced. Since 2005/06 the youth allocation from DE has been reduced from £3,172 million to £3,059 million in 2009/10. However, the needs of young people grow year on year. Instead of cutbacks in youth services, we need to greater in investment in youth services and youth workers.”

SDLP Youth have commented on NSPCC figures released today that reveal 347 children called ChildLine offices in Northern Ireland who were considering committing suicide.

Peter Armstrong, Chair of SDLP Youth said: “ChildLine are providing an invaluable counselling service 24-hours-a-day from their offices in Belfast and Derry. It is good news that young people are using this service to seek help with life’s problems, but it is also a great concern that the number of young people thinking about suicide has increased significantly.

“Young people are facing overwhelming pressures in life and sometimes feel they have nowhere to turn to when they need support. Suicide accounts for one-in-three deaths among young people.

“Both teenagers and younger children need to know they have close friends and family who care for them. They need to know they are never alone and there is support available for them - from friends, family, schools and telephone counselling.

“SDLP Youth call upon the government to dramatically increase investment in suicide awareness and prevention.

“While there has been some funding made available over the past three years, it was overdue and much more is now required.

“I would encourage any young person who is in distress or despair to seek help from friends, family, or professional counselling services such as ChildLine and LifeLine. They are available 24/7 and are completely confidential.”

ChildLine: (under 18s) Telephone 0800 1111

LifeLine: Telephone 08088088000

SDLP Youth support calls for a complete ban on parents in Northern Ireland being allowed to smack their children.

Peter Armstrong, Chair of SDLP Youth said: “SDLP Youth believe there should be a full ban on parents smacking their children. There are much better ways for parents to discipline children. It is worrying that there may still be parents who think it is appropriate to use smacking in this day and age.

“SDLP Youth would call for legislation to better protect children, and better guidance so parents know that smacking children is wrong. Smacking should never be necessary. We are particularly concerned for very young children and the lack of legislation to protect them.

“The Children’s Commissioner is correct in calling for a complete ban, as have her counter-parts in Scotland, England and Wales.”

SDLP Youth University and Colleges Officer Michelle Byrne has welcomed Mark Durkan MP’s motion earlier this week to raise the Student Loan repayment threshold from £15,000 to £18,000.

She said: “I would like to commend Foyle MP and leader of the SDLP Mark Durkan for raising this vital issue. It is good to see an MP who is passionate about fighting for student rights in Westminster.

“Mark Durkan has visited Queens University on many occasions over the years and each time he has underlined his commitment to supporting students in everyway possible, not only in the Northern Ireland Assembly but also in Westminster.

“As a Queens Student, it is fantastic to see that he has fulfilled his promises. This is a great example of how important the student movement is to the SDLP and to the leadership.

“It is fantastic to see that Mark Durkan is continuing to fight for the rights of people who do not have a big say. He deserves the full support not only from students, but from people who actively support student rights.”

SDLP Youth have criticised the police response time in Strabane after PSNI took over two hours to respond to an attempted abduction of a 7-year-old child.

Peter Armstrong, Chair of SDLP Youth said: “It is extremely worrying that it took police two hours to respond to an attempted abduction of a 7-year-old child outside the family home. In these two hours, the perpetrator could have gone onto other estates in Strabane and tried to abduct other young children.

“SDLP Youth are concerned at the number of times police are failing to meet response times for such serious incidents. The police have today once again assured the public that they have put measures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again, but we are now hearing this every week. It is not good enough. If the police want the community, and particularly young people to have confidence in their service, they must manage their communications and resources better to ensure that the safety and welfare of young people is not put at stake.

“I would call on the PSNI to increase patrols in the area, and to do their utmost to ensure such incidents are not repeated.”

SDLP Youth has marked European Safer Internet Day 2009 by condemning the proliferation of sectarian, racist and xenophobic material available to young people on social networking sites such as Bebo.

Peter Armstrong, Chair of SDLP Youth said: “Today 19 different organisations have signed up to a ‘Safer Internet’ agreement set up by the European Commission, but SDLP Youth is concerned that there is too much talk and not enough action from the organisations signing up to the new scheme.

“There are many profile pages on Bebo promoting racism, xenophobia, sectarianism and even terrorist organisations. Bebo should be an safe environment for people to interact and make new friends without being exposed to hatred and bigotry. There are Bebo pages representing loyalist and republican proscribed organisations, and far-right organisations.”

“There is also a large amount of spam bots sending pornographic links and other unsuitable content. Bebo needs to look at new ways to block such material from being mass distributed.

“We have appealed to Bebo in the past to crack down on hate pages on their network, and we believe the situation has since gotten worse, so we are now appealing again. Bebo is used by many children and the vast majority of users should not have their online experience marred by such content. Bebo has a responsibility to eradicate pages which carry extreme sectarian or racist language.”

SDLP passed a motion at their party conference in Armagh on 24^th January 2009 submitted by SDLP Youth, committing the party to fully supporting integrated education as a viable and important aspect of creating a shared future.

SDLP Youth passed the motion at their annual conference in Belfast on 5^th July 2008 and then brought the motion to the SDLP annual conference in January 2009.

Commenting on the motion passing SDLP Councillor McDermott said, ‘ I am pleased that this motion has passed. Integrated education is something that SDLP Youth feels very strongly about and something many young people support.

‘ Putting aside the academic achievements of integrated schools, which are usually very good, and looking at the social aspect - it is quite clear that we still live in a deeply divided society. While a divided but equal society is good enough for some parties, it is not good enough for the SDLP and it is not good enough for Northern Ireland and our future.

‘Integrating our children at a young age and exposing them to a number of different religions and traditions has proven to benefit our society. Conflict and strife arise out of misinformation and misconceptions; if we aren’t exposed to the other traditions then we have no basis to challenge that misinformation. Integrated Education provides our children with that opportunity.

END

The Motion: ‘Conference fully supports Integrated Education as a viable and important aspect of creating a fully integrated society and truly shared future’

Caitríona Ruane: Time to Resign

Dominic Bradley MLA has asked the Minister for Education for a breakdown of the backlog of maintenance work to be carried out on schools.

The response from the Minister contains a list of hundreds of schools owed large amounts of money - £217 million in total and many schools are owed several millions pounds each. This money is meant to be available to help improve nurseries, primary and secondary schools but the Minister isn’t providing the funding when it’s due.

It’s another gigantic blunder by the Minister. Here are some schools owed money:

Sydenham Primary     £1,603,325
St Anne’s PS     £1,954,862
Holy Trinity PS     £1,226,056
Belfast Girls’ Model     £3,586,395
Belmont House Special    £1,055,871

See the full list of schools here

Dominic Bradley MLA has said this means “many children are being taught in substandard classrooms. This shortfall is putting the health and safety of children at serious risk. There are serious questions to be answered like just how long have the Minister and her officials been aware of this? How long will the Minister allow this situation to continue? And what exactly are the implications for the pupils in our schools?”