Stormont Social Development Minister Mr Nigel Dodds was today under fire from nationalists over a £16.5 million housing improvement package for north Belfast.
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Stormont Social Development Minister Mr Nigel Dodds: accused of bias over housing package
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Mr Dodds, who is also the Democratic Unionist MP for North Belfast, was accused by Sinn Féin MLA Mr Gerry Kelly of concentrating £15.5m of the package on unionist areas while the SDLP's Mr Alban Maginness also expressed concern that the move was politically expedient.
They were speaking after the DUP minister announced an urban renewal scheme in the Mountcollyer and Gainsborough districts in the loyalist Tiger's Bay area will benefit from £15.5 million of the investment.
He also confirmed £1 million will go to a concierge scheme for multi-storey flats in the nationalist New Lodge area under the Northern Ireland Housing Executive's seven-year north Belfast strategy.
Mr Dodds announced: "This will enable the Housing Executive to get on with the job of removing the unsightly and unfit housing in these areas thus enabling a process of regeneration to begin.
"This will hopefully provide a sound basis for the restoration of confidence in this part of north Belfast."
The Stormont Social Development Minister also committed his department to delivering the rest of the £133 million North Belfast Housing Strategy.
However Sinn Féin MLA Mr Gerry Kelly claimed the way the funding was distributed showed how the minister had dispensed with the notion of equality proofing of government initiatives.
"North Belfast has traditionally been a unionist area with unionist political representation," Mr Kelly observed.
"As a result the nationalist community has suffered decades of political, social and economic deprivation. We are still living with the legacy of this every day. This year alone, it has seen in the region of 300 bomb and gun attacks on Catholics in the area.
SDLP Assembly member Mr Alban Maginness said he was pleased money was being allocated by the minister to tackle social and economic problems in north Belfast.
However he was also concerned that the announcement was "timed for party political reasons".
"This is to satisfy party political needs rather than to address housing needs in north Belfast.
"There are many other areas of north Belfast that are badly in need of help that have not been targeted in today's announcement. I hope that they too will benefit in the coming months and will not be neglected by the minister.