Lyttle says OFMDFM record on a shared future is appalling despite economic package

Alliance OFMDFM spokesperson, Chris Lyttle MLA, has said the First and deputy First Ministers have not done enough on promoting a shared future. His comments were made following an update on how an economic package of £100million from UK Government will be spent.

Chris Lyttle MLA said: “The First and deputy First Ministers will attempt to play this economic package as evidence of their commitment to a shared future, but their record on community relations has been appalling. They have so far only identified three shared education campuses, despite having a target of 10 and have yet to progress work on their target of 10 shared education neighbourhoods.

“Despite this economic package from Westminster, there is still no public update on the allocation of the OFMDFM Central Good Relations Fund for 2014/15 upon which many organisations doing courageous work rely.

“While I welcome the investment for integrated schools in Omagh, Portadown and Larne, OFMDFM have now removed integrated education as one of their community relations indicators. Integrated education was not even mentioned in their ‘Together: Building a United Community’ shared future strategy.

“Shared education where it increases contact between children of different backgrounds, it to be welcomed, but it must not come at the expensive of delivering integrated education.

“One year on from the publication of their strategy and the subsequent economic package, very little has been achieved.”

ENDS

Uncategorized
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *