DESTRUCTION OF NIHE WOULD BE DISASTROUS!

SDLP MLA and Party Chairman Joe Byrne has said that the destruction of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive is a disastrous move which will affect thousands of people and put a question mark over the principles which underpinned NIHE.

15th January  disastrous 

The West Tyrone MLA was speaking before the Assembly reconvened from its Christmas break.

He said: “for over 40 years, the Housing Executive stood as the mainstay of ensuring housing allocation based on need and not on creed.

“The principles which underpinned its foundation were both noble and necessary, as much now as in 1971.

“It is not a perfect organisation – there were and remain improvements which need to be made to ensure its effectiveness and efficiency and it was that, rather than its destruction, which my colleagues Margaret Ritchie and Alex Attwood had in mind when they examined the need for a review.

“However, Nelson McCausland’s decision to axe the Executive is disastrous for thousands and, in tandem with his shameful actions in relation to Girdwood last year, raises many questions about the Minister’s commitment to housing allocated on the basis of proven need.

“As of Friday afternoon, the Minister was also refusing to give an oral statement to the house in addition to his written statement of last week, flying in the face of specific advice from the Speaker that he should appear in person to face MLAs on the topic.

“I have called his actions cowardly, and I see no need to revise my opinion.

“My Party Colleague Mark H Durkan, has tabled an urgent oral question for the Minister which I am hopeful of being selected if the Minister refuses to come before the house of his own volition.

“The people of Strabane who are in in need of social housing deserve nothing less than an efficient, effective, well-managed housing authority which will protect them from inequality. The Minister should be helping NIHE to improve, not implode.”