ELSIE Trainor, a native of County Laois, is running for the SDLP in South Belfast alongside Matthew O’Toole.

Coming from a farming background, Elsie is the youngest of ten siblings and grew up in a politically active family. Moving to Dublin for eight years at 18, she worked in marketing and communications before moving to South Belfast where she met her husband.

“People are really squeezed at the moment, they’re worried about their energy bills, running their vehicles, and paying their rent and mortgages," said Elsie. "Families are really struggling and the current rise has affected everyone, with people who wouldn’t have felt the squeeze in the past now having to make difficult choices.

"This is at a time when the DUP have collapsed the Executive and as a result we have £300 million which should be going to people to help with their energy costs sitting there and we can’t touch it. That’s money that’s ours to spend helping people, and because they’ve collapsed the Executive we can’t. It’s not fair for ordinary people, and people are very anxious.”

Elsie said the cost of living crisis is coupled with a despondency ordinary people feel about the political process. She added that concern is really high about the number of people on health waiting lists.

“People are being squeezed by this crisis, and there is a real anxiety in that people don’t have faith in the political structures to help them. Speaking with people on the doors there is also real worry about health waiting lists. People are on lists for years and don’t know when they will get that letter to let them know they can get their operations. I spoke with a mother about the same age as me with children the same age as my own who was on a waiting list for knee surgery on both knees. It broke my heart because she was really struggling, and this should be the happiest time in her life, raising her children, but because she needed this surgery she wasn’t physically able to be as present as she wanted to be.

"The stress that puts on a parent’s mental health, as well as on the children themselves, is immense, and I feel the issue needs to be tackled immediately, because it will lead to a big crisis down the line on top of everything else.”

Another pressing issue facing South Belfast which Elsie wants to address if elected is the lack of school places. South Belfast’s population is increasing rapidly but school places are not keeping pace. Elsie explained that a lot of parents are worried that their children will not be able to access their educational place of choice unless schools are  expanded, more places made available and new schools built in the area.

“South Belfast’s population is spurting at the moment, it’s a really attractive place for young families, but there aren’t enough places in schools for those families. Schools need to be expanded to facilitate this, and the Department for Education has been lacking. I want to do something to change this by making sure more places are available and funding is secured for expanding schools.”

A lack of educational facilities for children with special needs in the area is another is another challenge. 

“Last week the Department of Education said there will be fewer special educational psychologists available to help children with needs, and there is already a shortage of these psychologists across the North, so the problem will get worse for children who need help without something being done.”

Elsie says the issue of the border in the Irish Sea is not something that people are concerned about as she goes from door to door. 

“The Protocol has not come up once, people are thinking of how to heat their homes, pay their rent and mortgages and care for their families. I attended a High Street hustings a few weeks ago and local residents and business owners came and raised  concerns about their rates and energy bills with Edwin Poots. He would only talk about the Protocol, and people weren’t interested in that at all because for ordinary people it’s not an issue on the ground, and collapsing the Executive over it has been extremely damaging when people need help the most.”

Elsie expressed her desire to make South Belfast an attractive place to live and ensure that future generations will not feel that they have to move abroad to experience a better quality of life.

“My goal is to improve things for the next generation, and looking at my children it’s very disheartening to think that they may have to move one day to find a better quality of life. We have lost whole generations of people who have moved away, and it’s because the process at home doesn’t work, and we need to change that, to make this place an encouraging, positive and welcoming place and we need an Executive to express this, and not focus on issues which are harming ordinary people and their quality of life here.”

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