Anna Lo and the Alliance Party

Lo calls for action on the costs of division

28/04/10

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Alliance South Belfast candidate Anna Lo has reiterated her party's call for the costs of division to be tackled. It has been estimated that over £1 billion is wasted annually on maintaining a divided society.

Anna Lo said: "For too long Northern Ireland has wasted money on maintaining a divided society. This policy never made sense economically or socially but other parties refused to listen. Now that we could be facing serious cuts from the next Government in Westminster we need to act immediately in tackling the costs of division.

In the past week we have seen David Cameron state that Northern Ireland's public sector will be slashed under a Tory Government. If we could tackle the costs of segregation society then we would be able to protect our frontline services from the devastation of a Conservative Government.

We need to make the best use of the resources we have, we can not afford to be wasting vast sums of money. None of the other parties have highlighted areas where we could make savings, but we have. If we do not take this issue seriously then hospitals and schools could be under threat."