Ms Meighan said there is no evidence in this document that they understand or acknowledge the root causes of poverty and the resulting consequences it brings to working class families and communities. The pledge to support people in maximising their financial wellbeing offers no concrete mechanisms beyond a promise to continue providing free financial advice which is highly unlikely to address structural poverty. The APS document promises that all children will have maximised opportunities in relation to education. Yet children in Northern Ireland are deprived of the free nursery places .

Ms Meighan continued children in all other regions of the UK have thirty hours free nursery places during term time aimed at addressing socio-economic gaps. Therefore children in Northern Ireland from working class households will continue to miss out on important educational and other opportunities. In terms of the pledge to create safe environments and strong communities and improve physical infrastructure is meaningless without costed plans or timetable rendering them rhetorical rather than operational.

The strategy promises to address gaps in childcare provision so that disadvantage families can maximise their potential in the workplace. This would require a commitment on employment rights and well paid sustainable employment which is ignored in the document the document merely points to a strong and growing economy as the vehicle for poverty alleviation. This would require a reorientation of the Northern Ireland economy and a shift of emphasis away from the privatisation and fragmentation of our health and social care services, bringing services back in house and creating more jobs would also help to start the process of dealing with health inequalities.

Ms Meighan finished by saying in its present form, the strategy is perpetuating existing inequalities while presenting the illusion of action. The strategy needs to be withdrawn.