FERMANAGH is facing “an unprecedented crisis” – feared to be worse than the darkest days of the last recession – with families, farmers, and businesses all on the edge due to the spiralling cost of living.
With fuel prices remaining cripplingly high, the cost of food rising by the week, and inflation expected to hit an eye-watering eight percent in April, the extreme hardships facing the local community were the focus of a special meeting held by the local Council at Enniskillen Townhall on Monday evening. At that meeting, councillors outlined the stories of hardship they had been hearing from every sector of local society, and there were even warnings the agriculture industry was under so much strain there could even be food shortages on the horizon.
The meeting was called to see what the Council could do to help the community cope with the ever worsening situation, and centred around a motion put forward by Cllr Barry McElduff calling for action to tackle the crisis. The motion called on the government at Westminster to take action by scrapping VAT on domestic energy bills and cutting duty on home heating oil, petrol and diesel and called for a halt to the planned increase in National Insurance contributions and changes to red diesel entitlement.
The motion also stated £300 million allocated by the Treasury in Westminster to help relieve the current pressures could not be released because the DUP had collapsed the Executive, and called on the party to get back into government.
To read more on this story see this week’s Fermanagh Herald. Can’t get to the shop to collect your copy? No problem! You can download a copy straight to your device by following this link https://bit.ly/3gOl8G0
To read more.. Subscribe to current edition
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere