SDLP Youth will be running a fringe event on the Saturday of the SDLP Annual Conference (Saturday 6^th February) focussing on changing identities in a New Ireland. The Panel consists of Professor Brian Walker QUB, John McCallister MLA UUP and Conall McDevitt MLA SDLP.

Commenting on the event and the future programme of events on this issue that SDLPY will be exploring, SDLPY Chairperson Cllr Matthew McDermott said, ‘It remains the case that politics in the north is changing. People now are living more of a shared future than any time in the past forty years. Young people are now born and growing up without the violence seen in the past.

‘We are working together, living together more, being educated together more, socialising together, sharing and forging friendships together.

‘There is a real sense among our generation that we are further forward than our current politicians, particularly in our ruling parties, the DUP and SF. We are better equipped to deliver a progressive future. Their priorities are not our priorities, as is evident over this past two weeks. They have got their priorities wrong. Ireland is changing, North and South.

SDLP Youth is rolling out a programme of engagement with our young people, and all those who wish to contribute, to identify and understand our priorities in a new Ireland, North and South. We would encourage everyone to join us in defining our new priorities and what politics should mean to us in the future’.

END

Notes:

1)      The first event will be on Saturday 6^th February 2010 in Newcastle, with a panel discussion involving the SDLP and UUP to be followed by a wider Panel Discussion in March, with senior party representatives North and South. This will be followed with an all-party youth forum on the issue of ‘changing priorities’ later in the year.

2)      The purpose of this programme is for young people to identify and define, in different policy areas, their priorities and aims and attempt to set and define the political agenda for the next 30 years in Ireland.

SDLP Lisburn Councillor and Chair of SDLP Youth (SDLPY) Matthew McDermott and SDLP Belfast Councillor Niall Kelly visited Tiblisi, Georgia, to deliver campaign training to the Young Georgian Socialists (YGS), a youth movement in Georgia of over 4000 people.

 The young SDLP Councillors spent two days in Tiblisi helping the Georgian movement develop democratic practices and teaching them effective campaigning methods.

 Commenting Cllr McDermott said, ‘ SDLPY has developed good links with the YGS over the past year and we hope to establish a permanent program in the country to continue with the work we are doing. SDLP and SDLPY is a proudly pro European and internationalist organisation, recognising the need for greater international cooperation with other social democrats across an increasingly globalised and multi cultured world.

 ‘ We delivered a comprehensive campaigning workshop and discussed our own experiences here in Northern Ireland.’

 Cllr Kelly continued, ‘ Georgia is a country which has been in a state of transformation since the Rose Revolution in 2003. The past six years has seen massive change in the Country and for the first time in many years the voices of young people are beginning to be heard.

“We in the SDLP are proud to do what we can to help our friends in the YGS develop their organization and to articulate their views to the wider Georgian public.

END

http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkellysdlp/4075721706/ 
 

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.

SDLP youth chair Cllr Matthew McDermott has criticised the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for his proposal to sell off the Student Loan Book in the proposed list of assets to be sold off and warned that the review into student fees must not reflect the wishes of Vice Chancellors but rather represent the needs of students, particularly our most vulnerable.

Matthew said, ‘ Gordon Brown has proposed selling off government assets to offset the budget deficit. While this is an approach we would generally welcome to avoid severe cuts, we can’t support the selling off of the student loan book. Selling this off will undoubtedly lead to higher interest rates for students in the future. It is a shortsighted move that is ill thought out and does not represent the wishes of the vast majority of students.

‘ Add this to the fact that University UK (UUK) the body representing UK Vice Chancellors has called for a rise in fees to about £5 000 per year and the CBI has called for ‘restricted’ maintenance grants and this equals a bad deal for students. 

‘ The government will be reviewing all this in November and we will be asking our SDLP MP’s to make representations to the government opposing these moves and join the Labour Backbenchers organising against any increase in fees.

Continuing Matthew said, ‘ SDLP Youth will also be stepping up a student awareness campaign across our universities calling on the Student Loan Book to remain in public ownership, no fee hike and no tampering of the maintenance grants.

‘ If the government goes ahead with any of these moves we are heading for a situation whereby University will only be for societies most wealthy and exclude young people from poorer backgrounds. A situation that is unsustainable.

This year again, SDLP Youth had a very successful Freshers Fayre at Queen’s University recruiting new members and promoting the party’s unique brand of social democracy and progressive values.

Commenting after the event SDLP Youth Chair Matthew McDermott said, ‘ SDLP Youth at Queen’s had another very successful year. This year it was clearly evident that there is growing dissatisfaction at the inability of both the DUP and SF to deliver anything tangible for young people while in government.

‘Our message today was simple; “enough is enough”, it’s time to take our future into our own hands. The time for the DUP and SF to stop patting themselves on the back, for literally sitting round a table, is well and truly over. The recession is deepening while the cost of living is soaring. Young people of our generation, more than any other, accept that things have got to change - and the chances of this happening while the DUP and SF are in power, are slipping further and further away.

Universities and Colleges representative Connor Daly said, ‘This was a great opportunity for SDLP to engage with young people and we succeeded in recruiting many young interested new members.

‘ SDLP Youth will be carrying out a progressive program of work this year, tackling issues that are important and relevant.

END

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 youth representative Councillor Matthew McDermott has condemned the killing of a police officer in Craigavon tonight (Monday 9^th March), following the murder of two soldiers in Antrim on Saturday 7^th March.

Commenting on the murder Cllr McDermott said, ‘My thoughts are with the officers family and this murder must be condemned outright. Early reports would suggest that dissident republicans also carried out this murder.

‘These people have nothing to offer the people of Ireland, they want to destabilise the process and spark an over reaction from the security forces to justify their actions, in their minds and this should not happen.

‘ I have a clear message for the dissidents, and I think I speak for the majority of young people who grew up at the end of the troubles and are untainted by the murder and destruction of the past when I say,

‘My generation has no intention to go back to the past, we have every intention to go forward, much more forward than ever before in our history and continue undeterred the process of truly uniting our people. We are ‘ceasefire babies’, less tainted by the violence and divisions of the past and we know peace to be normal.

Concluding and commenting on the three murders Cllr McDermott said, ‘what these murderers carried out is to us abnormal, sickening and deplorable and they will not prevent my generation from sowing the seeds of the unity of our people and peace for our people. The next generation deserves nothing less and we will not let so called ‘Irish republicans’ stop that progress.

‘Any one with any information, however small must bring this forward so these people are brought to justice.’

END

SDLP Lisburn Councillor Matthew McDermott proposed at last nights (Tuesday 24 February) Lisburn Council meeting that the council support the strengthening of temporary or agency workers rights.

The issue about weak protections arose in the chamber on the back of the Coca Cola plant in Lisburn laying off, with no opportunity of appeal, redundancy and the like, agency staff.

Commenting about the proposal which gained cross party support Cllr McDermott said, ‘ In the mist of an economic downturn and the inevitable job losses that that results in, Lisburn City Council adopted a position tonight (Tuesday 24 February) to support the improvement of the conditions of temporary workers.

‘It has become too common for news bulletins to carry stories of job losses - and everyone knows that when a company is struggling it gets rid of the staff that are the most expendable, i.e. temporary agency workers.

‘ SDLP, led by SDLP Youth has been continuously campaigning for fairer wages and better rights for agency and temporary workers, many of whom are young, long before the recession and downturn. We will continue that fight.

‘ After much debate, and an adjournment due to one of those former agency workers being present in the public gallery and verbally expressing his frustration and annoyance at the Coca Cola plant and some political members who he feels failed to help him, I made a proposal.

‘ I proposed that Lisburn City Council writes to our Minister for Employment and Learning, Reg Empey MLA, and his counter part in Britain asking them to bring urgent legislation forward that brings temporary workers rights in line with permanent workers rights.

‘ There is no doubt that a change in legislation is long over due.

‘ This proposal is a first step; it gained cross party support thanks to one UUP member’s support and passed.

Lisburn City Councils Environmental Services Committee approved the use of children by the Council in ‘entrapment’ scenarios to entrap shop keepers selling tobacco to minors.(Committee meeting 3 September).

SDLP Lisburn Councillor Matthew McDermott strongly opposed this move by the Council, as he believes it to be a form of exploiting children. Cllr McDermott criticised the council saying that they have not put in the safety measures required to protect children who take part in these entrapments. He was a single voice on the Committee.

Commenting Cllr McDermott said “I am deeply disappointed by the actions of the committee, this is a serious issue and a dangerous path for any local authority to go down. It raises a number of child protection issues.

“No local authority should have this power; it is essentially the power to use children. The Council have not demonstrated how they plan to ensure the safety of the child once they leave the care of the officers.

“I asked that a number of protections be put in place but they were rejected. When we are dealing with children we need to ensure that there is no possibility that anything can go wrong. This hasn’t been assured. The Child Protection officer produced a report which gives me no comfort.

“This means that it may be possible for the council to use a 14 year old child and for councillors to know nothing about it. What’s to stop that child from being recognised on the street by the shop owner in future? That child could then be put in serious danger if the shop owner is not reasonable.

Concluding, Cllr McDermott said, “its very disappointing and worrying to think that young children could be put in this position, by a body which is supposed to serve them. The SDLP opposes local councils having this power for a number of reasons including the fact that there is no dedicated oversight, which is vital when it comes to people’s safety.”

END
Notes to editor:
* The power to use children for test purchasing will take effect after the September meeting of Full Council.