Ms Elaine Crory:

It is arguably worse sometimes at local level because it does not have the same scrutiny as the Assembly has. There have been particular schemes rolled out, for example, by Belfast City Council, which is where I live. There was one for fuel poverty hardship the winter before last and it used the same organisations for disbursing funding within the communities. Under that the city was divided into north, east, south and west and this had been used for a different piece of funding around Covid-19. It was not opened up to public interest and much of the money that was disbursed into the four areas went into organisations with some degree of connection to various political parties. However, the money was not disbursed in a first come, first served way in some cases. Many people queued outside in horrendous weather in the depths of winter to try to get a voucher and most of the vouchers had been allocated before the doors opened that morning. There was a lot of anger and frustration and a good bit of media attention because it was so public. Many people went directly to the media but that pattern repeats itself on a regular basis.

Having said that, some pieces of funding that some councils have, for example, for gender equality work, are opened widely, including to our organisations, among many others. In that case, it is disbursed with a degree of fairness that is good. That funding should be open to the public and should be filtered through. Instead of one organisation that may have oversight of poverty distributing it on the basis of need, it often goes to those who are deeply connected with elements of the local community and that makes it less fair for members of the public trying to access it.