Support for Cookstown district council
Le Padraig MacDabhaid
Sinn Fein Assembly member for South Down and party spokesperson on
housing, Mick Murphy, has voiced his support for Cookstown district
council's threat to boycott the Six County Housing Council (NIHC).
The threat of the boycott has come about because of the continual
refusal of the unionist dominated housing body to place nationalists
in influential posts. This refusal has left Cookstown district
council to call for ``proper representation'' in nominations by the
Housing Council to the board of the Housing Executive.
Every year the NIHC picks three representatives to take up positions
on the board of the ten member housing executive. However, since its
inception in the early seventies, the NIHC has consistently selected
an all unionist panel except for 1995 when it selected one
nationalist.
The board and its selection process are representative of the
unionist monolith and its attempts to stop others from sharing power.
This must change if the unionists are to carry out the commitment
which they gave in the Good Friday Agreement.
In order to combat this unionist intransigence, Sinn Fein and the
SDLP have voted through a motion in Cookstown which will put pressure
on NIO minister Dubs and members of the Assembly to introduce
legislation which will create a ``more representative'' appointment
process. However, if this does not occur then Cookstown council will
withdraw its representation from the Housing Council as Cookstown
district council does not want to play any part in a ``platform for
discrimination''.
Speaking after a meeting with the Sinn Fein Chairperson of Cookstown
district council, Pearse McAleer, Mick Murphy said, ``it is a disgrace
that the NIHC has only nominated one nationalist to the board of the
Housing Executive in the last thirty years. Considering that the
Housing Executive administrated a budget of 500 million last year,
proportional representation on the board is of vital importance''.
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