Lisburn Council not interested in equality

After An Phoblacht's revelations last week that the Dublin Government is to monitor developments at Lisburn City Council, it was announced this week that the council is to undertake a telephone survey throughout the borough as part of its controversial Good Relations Strategy.

Lisburn Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Butler had asked the Taoiseach to raise the issue of sectarian discrimination against nationalist representatives with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Chairperson of the Council's Strategic Policy Committee Alliance Councillor Séamus Close claimed that "whilst we take a lot of knocks, Lisburn Council has done tremendous work to try and improve relations not just in terms of religious or political issues in the North but right across the entire community, whether it be in terms of race, ability or whatever".

However, rubbishing the initiative, Sinn Féin's Paul Butler said: "Despite the Good Relations Strategy, Lisburn City Council is still plagued by the reality of ongoing discrimination against Catholics in the borough. In the week when the survey starts, for example, the council is hosting a civic and regimental reception in honour of the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR).

"The formal invitations were printed up with Lisburn Council crest on one corner and the RIR crest in the other corner. This is an armed, sectarian militia that is associated with the worst excesses of loyalism.

"Lisburn City Council's association with the RIR is just the latest example of anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist conduct. It is only interested in promoting a unionist agenda and it is time that everyone faced up to the reality that this council's pretence to be interested in community relations is a farce."