Lisburn mum feels 'trapped at home' due to widespread strikes
Sharon Hickie has been forced to work from home as her children's school is closed
A working mum says she feels 'trapped' at home today due to the strike action.
Sharon Hickie from Lisburn has two young children whose primary school is closed due to teachers taking part in industrial action.
Around 170,000 public sector workers including teachers, nurses, health staff, civil servants and some PSNI staff are all taking to the picket lines.
It is being described as the biggest strike in Northern Ireland's history and centres around a public sector pay dispute.
Sharon says she had no choice but to work from home:
"It feels like we'll be trapped in the house, the fact that we can't really go anywhere, the weather's bad.
"With the fact the gritters are on strike I can't really go anywhere, I live out in the country so I'd be too worried to even put the kids in the car and try and get out for an hour."
The UK government has offered a deal to settle public sector pay disputes but it is conditional on Stormont's return.
Sharon says Northern Ireland citizens deserve better:
"I get there's bigger issues at play but for me all I care about is looking after my children, going to work, making sure everybody in my family's happy, making sure we've got adequate healthcare when we need it, they're the things that matter to me.
"It has an impact as a working mother that I have to then think about what am I going to do how am I going to cope with this on top of work.
"I totally understand why the strikes are taking place but in terms of the politicians I just think can they just come to some sort of resolution because it's impacting really negatively on everybody's daily lives.
"I just think it is such a load of nonsense at this point we all deserve to have a government who are actually going to look after us and help us with our day-today-lives."