Transcript of Seamus McAleavey's speech at the launch of the Anti Poverty Strategy

Please note that this is a note of the key comments made by Seamus McAleavey, and not a verbatim record of the speech he delivered.

Welcome to NICVA, especially to the Secretary of State.

• This is an important milestone in the campaign to eradicate poverty in NI.
• We are really pleased to hear what you’ve said today with regard to the strategy.
• We’re at a new start, and that is very important.

Many of us have been around this process for thirteen or fourteen years.

• We’ve been some of the most supportive and most critical of this process. We wanted to see action and impact.
• We have been robust with our comments, but clearly we want to be involved in partnership in the delivery of the strategy to eradicate poverty.
• We promote bottom up connections between most disadvantaged and government, to achieve change. We act from bottom-up, but we clearly now have to also work from top down.
• Critical that government’s action on poverty was strategic, and that it has a top down approach.
• Clear goals very important, and those have been set in simple terms, in order to ensure that every person can understand the strategy.
• Thanks to SoS for his personal commitment. It’s clearly the big issue for him.

We looked at government’s economic vision, and we asked for four goals.

• We saw that government had an economic vision, and from that Departments and others will create targets aimed at meeting those economic goals.
• We wanted something similar for an anti-poverty strategy.
• What was it the political government was trying to achieve? That has been spelled out.
• One critical thing is the commitment to resources
• This is now clearly a key cross cutting theme for government.
• Whilst many may not understand the concept of the Comprehensive Spending Review the SoS is clearly saying that Poverty eradication by 2020 is a key priority. There is no bigger goal.
• When we study this in detail, we will differ, certainly, but this is a strategic document, and we are very pleased with its release.

Lord Rooker has clearly listened, and I’m satisfied that what we asked for is, I think, what we got.

• We are happy to have the political leadership, and it’s important that the strategy is mentioned in the St Andrews Agreement. We are pro-devolution, of course, and want to see a new devolved administration take these issues seriously as well.
• Sometimes politics here isn’t about bread and butter issues, but this is, and we’re happy about that.
• Now the strategy is released, there is more to do.
• There is now a new start.
• There is a lot to be done with the departments to help them take decisions which help deliver on the strategy.
• I commend the document, and we look forward to working with government.