SINN Féin Councillor Arder Carson told an anti-drugs rally at Pembrooke Loop shops that drug dealers are recruiting children as young as 11 to carry on their sordid trade for them.

To anyone with the slightest knowledge of how drug dealers work and of the kind of people involved in this vile business, this still retains the power to shock, but deep down it comes as no surprise because there are no depths to which these people will not sink in their ruthless quest for money and power.

Schoolchildren who have become addicted to drugs not surprisingly run up debts which they are unable to pay; when this happens, they face two choices – suffer serious physical injury, or pay off the debt in kind, normally by selling drugs to their friends and schoolmates.

There is a close correlation between the fear and desperation faced by addicted and indebted youngsters and the high rate of suicide we are observing at present. Some young people, their minds already addled by drugs, believe that there is no way out of the cycle of addiction and debt and take the irreversible decision to take their lives. That makes the thugs and criminals who sell them the drugs and who threaten their lives little more than murderers.

Thankfully, as Cllr Carson pointed out, some young people are coming forward and asking for help. It is vital that the message gets out to our youth that support is available, that they can be saved from the nightmare in which they’re living by taking the vital first step of just sitting down and talking to someone. It matters little who that is in the first instance – what matters is that they acknowledge their pain and fear and allow others to weigh in behind them.

The police have an onerous responsibility in this. The main drug dealers are known to the community, they are also known to the police. They need to be targeted in a proactive and continuing manner so that they get no peace to carry on their loathsome business. The days of protecting drug dealers in return for information on the community must be over – and they must be seen to be over. It’s time we all got serious about drugs.

As the recession starts to bite in earnest, there will be much soul-searching among our political, trade union and community leaders over how best to weather the economic storms sweeping these islands.

Next month, we’re told the Executive will be handed down some bitter medicine from our self-styled masters in Whitehall in the form of £2bn (that’s two thousand million pounds) in cutbacks.

Divided between capital build works and ongoing services, cutbacks of that magnitude could lead to the loss of up to 30,000 public service jobs. In weighing up their options, the Executive parties should look long and hard at how their choices might impact on an already troubled economy. Avoiding job losses should be the priority. Families with breadwinners on the dole are certain to cut back on spending, further delaying any recovery and causing even more job losses. Therefore, where the hard choice has to be made between delaying wage rises and making public servants redundant, our political leaders should always opt for the lesser of two evils: a recruitment and wage freeze rather than lay-offs.

Of course, much of this economic misery could be avoided if the Stormont Executive had its own tax-raising powers. Unfortunately, however, London is adamantly refusing to devolve fiscal autonomy to Belfast, a situation which means our local government is more like a teenager rather than a mature adult; it can organise its budget as it wants but must ultimately look to its ‘parents’ for finances.

Standing on our own two feet as Irish people means reversing that situation – before the British government pulls this community down with it as it makes a hash of its own finances.

Until that much-anticipated day, it’s important that we make sure Belfast continues to move forward, even as the dark clouds gather.

Real improvements must be made in our educational achievement. The plans for the new £15m e3 complex at Springvale bode well for North Belfast but ultimately we need to improve the performance of our young people in gaining academic qualifications. There is no greater way to empower a young person than through education. And it’s only through educational excellence that we can hope to attract the investment and long-term employment this community deserves.

And while we have lauded the educational prowess of our teenagers in these pages in recent weeks, no-one can deny that for many young people who leave school at 16 with few qualifications, the system is broken. 

We won’t deliver the educational transformation we need without trying new approaches.

They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing the same way over and over again and expecting a different output. If we continue to follow the educational processes which are failing many of our young people, we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Instead, let’s take the bold decisions which will ensure more of our young people can take the high road of educational achievement, leading us all to a brighter future where we, and not some faceless English mandarin in Whitehall, will call the shots.

As the recession starts to bite in earnest, there will be much soul-searching among our political, trade union and community leaders over how best to weather the economic storms sweeping these islands.

Next month, we’re told the Executive will be handed down some bitter medicine from our self-styled masters in Whitehall in the form of £2bn (that’s two thousand million pounds) in cutbacks.

Divided between capital build works and ongoing services, cutbacks of that magnitude could lead to the loss of up to 30,000 public service jobs. In weighing up their options, the Executive parties should look long and hard at how their choices might impact on an already troubled economy. Avoiding job losses should be the priority. Families with breadwinners on the dole are certain to cut back on spending, further delaying any recovery and causing even more job losses. Therefore, where the hard choice has to be made between delaying wage rises and making public servants redundant, our political leaders should always opt for the lesser of two evils: a recruitment and wage freeze rather than lay-offs.

Of course, much of this economic misery could be avoided if the Stormont Executive had its own tax-raising powers. Unfortunately, however, London is adamantly refusing to devolve fiscal autonomy to Belfast, a situation which means our local government is more like a teenager rather than a mature adult; it can organise its budget as it wants but must ultimately look to its ‘parents’ for finances.

Standing on our own two feet as Irish people means reversing that situation – before the British government pulls this community down with it as it makes a hash of its own finances.

Until that much-anticipated day, it’s important that we make sure West Belfast continues to move forward, even as the dark clouds gather.

And impressive gains have been made: Sainsbury’s £30m investment at the Kennedy Centre, the £15m new health and wellbeing centre at Beech Hall which is about to open, a £5m renovation at Conway Mill and increased funding for the Irish language. But underpinning those infrastructural gains must be real improvements in our educational achievement. The plans for the new £15m e3 complex at Springvale bode well for West Belfast as does the mammoth investment in new school buildings, but ultimately we need to improve the performance of our young people in gaining academic qualifications. There is no greater way to empower a young person than through education. And it’s only through educational excellence that we can hope to attract the investment and long-term employment this community deserves.

And while we have lauded the educational prowess of our teenagers in these pages in recent weeks, no-one can deny that for many young people who leave school at 16 with few qualifications, the system is broken. 

We won’t deliver the educational transformation we need without trying new approaches – a position being pioneered by CBS Glen Road and by some of our most visionary leaders in the Irish language sector.

They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing the same way over and over again and expecting a different output. If we continue to follow the educational processes which are failing many of our young people, we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Instead, let’s take the bold decisions which will ensure more of our young people can take the high road of educational achievement, leading us all to a brighter future where we, and not some faceless English mandarin in Whitehall, will call the shots.

THE Irish Football Association is an organisation that has chronic problems. The awful mess that followed the bungled sacking of former Chief Executive Howard Webb and his subsequent and successful challenge is a matter of record and a cause of great concern to those who enjoy their soccer.

But for the woes of the IFA to have such a dramatic and negative impact on the affairs of the GAA is something that is as unfair as it is unsupportable. Ambitious plans to develop Casement Park into the pre-eminent Gaelic sports venue in Ulster have been put on the long finger because of the IFA imbroglio. Similarly, plans to upgrade Ravenhill Park to give Ulster rugby a shot in the arm have also been put back.

The problems stem from the decision not to build a one-size-fits-all sporting super-stadium that would have served all three codes. Instead, separate plans were developed for the upgrading of GAA, soccer and rubgy venues. Culture Minister Nelson McCausland argues that he cannot untie the package; that until the IFA problems are sorted, then nothing can forge ahead.

In so saying, he is effectively saying that the actions of senior figures inside the IFA, which have done so much to put back the development of soccer in the North, are also being allowed to have a detrimental effect on other sporting organisations which are being run with much more foresight and ability. That is a state of affairs which simply cannot be allowed to continue.

The development of Casement Park will be a major landmark in the continuing steady development of West Belfast. It will provide much-needed jobs and the massive influx of spectators for top games will have a beneficial knock-on effect to so many local businesses. 

It is a bitter irony that across the M1 the IFA – a sporting institution from which the vast majority of West Belfast nationalists have been estranged for decades – can have a right of veto on how both the GAA and West Belfast grow and develop.

Either Minister McCausland must act decisively to sort out the mess at the IFA, or he must unbundle the three projects, allowing the other two to continue apace.