Strangford Alliance MLA Kieran McCarthy has hailed yesterday’s coming into law of a ban on tobacco advertising as a big step towards a healthier environment. Alderman McCarthy said: “The right to a healthy environment must be paramount at all times, and this is a big step in the right direction. “Indeed, it is a little […]
Castlereagh Alliance Councillor Michael Long has welcomed progress on the Council’s Fair Trade policy at the monthly Council meeting. Councillors agreed to back the Making Poverty History campaign and have also agreed to increase the number of Fair Trade tea and coffee products used by the Council following a Taste Test in the Spring. The […]
Alliance Party Spokesperson for Victims and Survivors, Eileen Bell MLA, has urged the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Peter Hain, to remember that before reconciliation can take place, acknowledgement of the hurt and suffering caused has to be declared. Mrs Bell was responding the the Secretary’s comments on healing the scars of terrorism in Northern […]
Alliance Party Leader, David Ford MLA, expressed astonishment at the British Government’s announcement of a detailed two-year security normalisation plan, removing watchtowers, fortified police stations and most army bases. David Ford said: “While we are all working towards the day when we can have normal policing in Northern Ireland, there was nothing in the IRA’s […]
Ballymena Alliance Party representative, Jayne Dunlop, has condemned overnight attacks in Ahoghill and Ballymena. Jayne Dunlop said: “At this stage I have no idea of a motive, but regardless there can be no justification for attacks on property, particularly those which endanger life. The woman and boy in Ahoghill had a narrow escape, and could […]
The IRA Statement, which has been cautiously welcomed by Alliance, was announced ironically during the John Hewitt Summer School in Armagh: “Tarnished Map: the Geography of Memory after Conflict”. Yvonne Boyle, Alliance Party Spokesperson on Arts, Culture and Heritage, said at the end of the Summer School: “The IRA announcement came after two sessions on […]
An Alliance Party delegation has met with Sinn Fein representatives, to discuss the content of the IRA’s statement to end their armed campaign. The issue of victims and those exiled by the IRA was specifically raised, as well as the need for unionists to engage with the process. Eileen Bell MLA, Alliance Party Spokesperson on […]
Alliance Ballymena representative, Jayne Dunlop, has called the organisers of a republican parade ‘hypocrites’ over their objections to the restrictions placed on their proposed parade in Ballymena, to commemorate the introduction of internment in 1971. Jayne Dunlop said: “I had previously expressed my concern at the insensitivity shown by the organisers of the proposed parade […]
Kieran McCarthy MLA, Alliance Party Chief Whip, has expressed his bemusement at the Department of Environment’s proposal to further limit the ability of local councils to defer planning decisions, as the expectation is that the reform of local government (under the Review of Public Administration) is going to grant further powers to councils on matters […]
The Alliance Party has hit out at Planning Service plans to “streamline” the planning system which it said was further evidence that the Department intended to ignore locally accountable views in planning cases. Newtownabbey Councillor Tom Campbell said: “The proposals might seem innocuous at first, but what they will do is to steamroll planning applications, […]