Approximately a quarter of children in the Belfast city council area are living in poverty.

The same is true of the council areas of Derry City and Strabane and Newry, Mourne and Down.

The highest levels of child poverty in Northern Ireland, at 32.9%, are in the Belfast West electoral constituency – Belfast North sits not far behind on around 31%.

Nor is there much to boast about anywhere else. In 16 of our 18 constituencies and 10 of our 11 council areas, at least 20% of children are living in poverty.

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You would imagine elected representatives of every stripe here would be outraged at these appalling figures and, together, make a genuine effort to tackle this blight upon our children – but not a bit of it.

The most I can find at council level – no doubt put together by staff members – are glorified wish lists: equivalent to Santa Claus lists, except with no chance of the wishes ever being granted.

That’s because the councils’ ideas are dependent upon funding from Stormont.

But the Executive’s Anti-Poverty Strategy is itself woefully inadequate. It has no clear timelines, financial targets, or a funded child payment system.

Hardly a surprise, given that most of our politicians are too busy with “culture wars” to notice or care about child poverty.

And........

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