Charter NI

“It is not just Stormont that has a Social Investment Fund.”

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Newton Emerson in yesterday’s Irish News with some details on the other, less talked about, ‘social investment’ funds out there.  From the Irish News IT is not just Stormont that has a Social Investment Fund. Belfast City Council runs the Belfast Investment Fund and associated Local Investment Fund, with a combined pot of £31 million over three years for ‘community projects’. Alliance has claimed the council funds “aren’t advertised properly in any meaningful way”, leaving “those in the know in prime position to …

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DUP won’t intervene on employment matters, except when they will

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Arlene Foster refused to echo Martin McGuinness’s call for Dee Stitt to reconsider his role as Chief Executive with Charter NI. The organisation and indeed the Executive is facing greatly increased pressure over the ongoing Charter NI debacle and the Social Investment Fund as a whole. Arlene Foster said, “This man is an employee of Charter NI and they have to deal with him as they see fit, it would be wrong for me to intervene in all of the …

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Troubles with paramilitaries is a strategic legacy of the peace process itself

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Took me a while to get around to this, but Stephen Dempster’s Spotlight documentary on paramilitarism in North Down is well worth watching. The scale of the activism there is way below what we associate with Belfast or parts of Mid Ulster. It’s a reprise of a story Chris first picked up on for Slugger back in November. Several things come out of it. One is Jonathan Powell’s frank admission (here and here) that is remnant paramilitary control is something …

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