Stop The Cuts protest held in Derry’s Ebrington Square this afternoon
‘Stop The Cuts’ protestors also gathered in Limavady, Belfast and Strabane.
Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris laid out the North’s budget for 2023-4 in the absence of a Stormont Executive because of a DUP boycott.
Community workers, politicians and members of the public turned up for the protest in Ebrington Square this afternoon.
Several speakers said what lies ahead are “savage cuts” that will have a deep impact on vulnerable young people and children.
Shauna Doherty, a mother whose child attends Long Tower Primary school beside the Bogside, told BBC News NI: “Cuts to breakfast clubs will literally take the food out of the mouths of children.”
“I’d write to the education minister but we don’t have one.”
She added: “I think they should remember what my mummy always told me, and that is ‘your teacher knows best’.”
Speakers appealed to MLAs to get back to work because they claimed the current cuts were attacking children and attacking their futures.
SDLP Foyle MP Colum Eastwood and Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan supporting the ‘Stop The Cuts’ protest in Derry
“During Covid when some ran for cover we were out supporting our communities.
“Stop the cuts and start investing in our children and young people.”
Some carried placards saying: “Cut poverty not the poor,” and “Save our youth services. Stop budget cuts to deprived areas”.
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