12th October 2025

Speaking at a Party Seminar on Poverty, Peter McGuire, Workers Party Representative for Derry City, said that our Executive parties are doing nothing to address the root causes of poverty and multiple deprivations. Child poverty is growing and generational, poverty has impacted on the life chances of families and entire communities.

He highlighted the fact that Northern Ireland has the highest rates of poverty, child poverty, multiple deprivations, health inequalities, educational underachievement, and housing insecurity in Western Europe, adding that Derry City was one of the areas most affected by all of these problems. All of these issues have a major impact on the life chances of those caught in the never-ending cycle of systemic failures to tackle poverty and all its manifestations. It is nothing short of scandalous that a country that is wealthy allows such staggering impoverished conditions to exist.

The Workers Party has been at the forefront of raising these issues and have made substantial submissions to the programme for government on the first steps needed to start the process of implementing policies that will tackle the root causes of poverty, and the years of neglect and indifference shown to the plight of the working class people of Northern Ireland.