The NORTH'S First Minister, Mr David Trimble, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, yesterday joined other ministers from the devolved institutions in Scotland and Wales for their first official meeting at the Cabinet Office in London, where they discussed plans to tackle child and pensioner poverty.
Ministers detailed their plans to eradicate poverty and the areas in which policies in the devolved institutions co-ordinated with government policy. The British government is committed to spending about £6 billion to tackle poverty by implementing a range of initiatives including raising child benefit, income support and implementing the minimum wage and the working family tax credit.
The 60-minute meeting was chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, who said the discussion between ministers was an example of the devolved institutions "coming together to meet the common challenge" of poverty. A "full exchange of views" on ways of ending poverty was discussed and a work programme was drawn up which will begin next year.
Mr Brown was also joined at the meeting by the Social Security Secretary, Mr Alastair Darling, Scotland's First Minister, Mr Donald Dewar, the Welsh Secretary and former Northern Ireland minister, Mr Paul Murphy and the Scottish Secretary, Dr John Reid. The First Secretary of the Welsh Assembly, Mr Alun Michael, could not attend. After the meeting, Mr Trimble said there was a recognised need among all the political parties in Northern Ireland to address the issues of long-term poverty, unemployment and homelessness. The Northern Ireland Executive had inherited the new "Targeting Social Need" policy from Westminster that was unique to Northern Ireland and Mr Trimble said the Executive would make decisions on its implementation in the near future.
Mr Mallon said in the new inclusive society in Northern Ireland ministers were tasked to build, "poverty and social exclusion can never be accepted as inevitable".
Asked to comment on the discovery of a bugging device in a car used by Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness, Mr Trimble said: "Well, I would be surprised if the intelligence services were not doing their job, wouldn't you?"
Mr Mallon again called for a "thorough investigation" into the allegations: ein: "It must be established who did it and if it is proven there must be very stringent action taken. But we cannot have a situation in any political life, or indeed where any person in the North of Ireland is subject to that."