Meals row unsavoury but SF pension bid must be resisted
Claims that the delay in signing off on funding for a free school meals scheme for vulnerable children is linked to a dispute between the largest parties in the Executive leaves a bad taste.
It is widely accepted that pupils from disadvantaged areas have suffered most from the appalling absence of classroom education over the last few months and the £12m scheme would make things easier for overstretched, low-income families.
The Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford inspired a change of heart on summer free school meals from Boris Johnson in England after he waged an online campaign, and it seemed as if Northern Ireland would follow suit after an announcement last Friday.
However, it is believed that the unexpected delay here is linked to the ongoing dispute between the DUP and Sinn Fein over the failure to implement a pension scheme for victims of the Troubles.
There should not be any link between two entirely separate schemes, but this dispute does reinforce Sinn Fein’s shameful behaviour over the victims’ pension issue.
That innocent victims of terrorism here are still waiting for their pensions to be signed off because of Sinn Fein’s insistence that those who were seriously injured while carrying out attacks or other terrorist activity should also be included is beyond the pale. The party is fighting the ground of those who were trying to maim and murder. The DUP must not to give ground on this issue (the government has already previously done so).
It would be appalling if those who carried out terrorist acts were given equivalence with their victims.
Sinn Fein is also shamefully blocking the naming of a new leisure centre in Co Armagh. By opposing the naming of the centre in Craigavon as ‘Centenary Leisure Centre’, Sinn Fein is serving notice about republican plans to undermine the celebrations of Northern Ireland’s centenary in 2021.