Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has vowed to be the first minister to deliver an anti-poverty strategy for Northern Ireland.
It comes after the High Court heard on Friday that Stormont’s failure to adopt an anti-poverty strategy for NI was appalling.
During the hearing, counsel for a human rights watchdog claimed that the power-sharing administration has not remedied a legal breach identified 10 years ago.
The Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) is seeking to judicially review the Department for Communities for allegedly failing to put in place a programme to alleviate poverty.
Speaking on the BBC Radio Ulster on Tuesday morning, the DUP minister said that Northern Ireland will have an anti-poverty strategy “very, very soon”.
“It was promised in 1998. It was part of the Belfast Agreement and the 1998 Act. I will be bringing within weeks to the Executive an anti-poverty strategy and I will be the first minister to deliver it,” he said on The Nolan Show.
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The bid to seek a judicial review has been backed by the Unison trade union and Barnardo’s charity. The challenge is also directed against the Executive Office along with the First and Deputy First Ministers as leaders of the cabinet.
Proceedings were issued over the state of progress since the court declared in 2015 that Stormont has violated its duties under section 28E of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
On Tuesday morning, the minister denied that progress on the anti-poverty strategy was a result of the legal action.
“I came into the office, and it was a pledge that had been made and it was something that I had been progressing regardless of what had been in happening in the courts,” he explained. “That has had no impact on this process.”
Pressed on details of the new strategy, Mr Lyons said it will focus on three pillars but added that the most important part “is that we are working collectively as an Executive”.
He added: “That we agree this is the way we need to go. We are all signing up to it. We all have our action points in place and get on with it and deliver.
“I have zero interest in putting together a strategy that doesn’t mean anything, or a strategy that just sits on a shelf.
“First of all, we’re going to put actions in place that prevent people from falling into poverty in the first place — helping those that are experiencing poverty and helping people get out of poverty.”
The minister added that a key to the strategy is health and education, saying that getting people into work is at the centre of the issue.
He said: “If we want to get people out of poverty, the best thing that we can do is help people get into work — and that is the focus that I am going to have in this strategy.”
News Catch Up – Tuesday 4 February