Magherafelt councillor blames partition of Ireland for foodbanks

Magherafelt District Council is soon to discuss the issue of support for a Foodbank in the district.
FoodbankFoodbank
Foodbank

Sinn Féin councillor, Seán Bateson has arranged for representatives of the Trussel Trust to make a presentation to his council colleagues regarding their plans to establish a foodbank in Magherafelt to “address the effects of poverty at a local level while meeting the immediate needs of hard pressed local families and citizens.”

Austerity and its dire consequences for citizens is the current cost of the Partition of our country,” said Cllr. Bateson.

“As we approach the Westminster 2015 elections, progressive people will be casting their votes at a time of increasing European wide poverty as conservative governments implement their programmes which in effect spell Austerity for the poor and disadvantaged while giving tax breaks for the super rich.

“The British Prime Minister and his cabinet of millionaires Austerity agenda is having awful effects on the lives of hard-working families, especially here in the six-counties with the year on year cuts to the Block Grant.

When asked as to what is uppermost in the minds of electors across County Derry at this time, Councillor Bateson stated: “When I’m engaging on a regular basis with people of all shades of political opinion - nationalists, republicans, unionists and others, they’re all saying the same things, ‘ Keep fighting for the working poor and the vulnerable. Make sure punitive cuts to frontline services such as health and well being don’t come in’.”