SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan
Said the Foyle MLA: “Derry City & Strabane District Council’s Emergency Energy Support Fund closed on Tuesday afternoon just hours after it opened. This is evidence of the huge need out there at this time.
“Yet the North of Ireland is the only jurisdiction who has not received an energy payment.
“People were promised £400 in November, they had been relying on that support, holding out for titbits of information.
“Only to be told that this payment won’t arrive before Christmas and will likely not be issued until the new year with no clarity given on dates.
“That is a disgrace.
“The Assembly was been recalled yesterday for the fifth time – it won’t fix the huge problems overnight but it will get help to households who should have received financial support long before now.
“Our communities have suffered an overlap in crises and for the most part have been left open and vulnerable to those crises.
“The DUP’s continued siege of Stormont is nothing short of wilful negligence – lives are at stake.
“Their arrogance in the face of such desperation is astounding.
“The cost of living crisis, the crisis within our health service, the significant rise in serious mental health issues – it does not discriminate.
“Nationalists, Unionists, other; everyone is struggling at this time and they are relying on delivery from the representatives they elected to work with their best interests at heart.
“Collapsing our institutions and penalising the most vulnerable in the process can never be justified.
“It’s high time the DUP put people before political posturing. Their imperviousness in the face of the dire situation facing people across the North is cruel.”
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