Tory peer: Stormont was always meant to fund Troubles’ pensions
A FORMER special adviser to sixsecretariesofstatehassaidit was always intended that Stormont fund the Troubles’ pension scheme.
Lord Caine was speaking as the stand-off continued between Downing Street and the Executive over who foots the £100m-plus bill.
The Tory peer, whose time in Northern Ireland spanned from 1991 until last year when he was not reappointed, said he understood the fury of the bereaved and injured.
“Victims and survivors who have campaigned for so long and with such dignity will be rightly angry and devastated by the latest setback,” he said.
Lord Caine stated that it was “always envisaged” that any pension scheme would be run by the Executive and financed through the “substantial” block grant it received from Westminster.
In the House of Lords, government representative Viscount Younger expressed disappointment and frustration at the failure to introduce compensation payments for victims. He said that innocent people had waited too long for financial help and that Stormont “must deliver”.
The scheme had been due to open for applications on May 29 andvictimsarethreateninglegal action over the delay.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that while the issue must be urgently addressed, it should not prevent Stormont nominating a lead department and progressing with award assessments.
“I understand the very real resource concerns that exist at the Executivelevel,”hesaid.“iagree that the British Government should make additional funds available.
“But that should not stop the nomination of a lead department to take the scheme forward, the creation of a budget line to allow funds to be allocated quickly and progress on panel assessments to determine the scale of individual awards.”
Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie rounded on the Executive Office for its dithering.
“The Executive Office still can’t get their act together to even nominate a lead department,” he said.
“It would be fair to say that the UK Government must put [in] some financial resources as it is a Uk-wide scheme. However, the Northern Ireland Executive must be prepared to pay also.”
Rounding on Sinn Fein, he said the party’s “sheer audacity” saw it demand that London wholly fund a scheme that included many victims of an IRA it had supported. “To add insult to injury, they want those IRA perpetrators to avail of the same payment to give them equivalence with their victims,” he said.
“This is Sinn Fein acting for the few, not the many, to preserve their own narrative of the past.”
DUP Economy Minister Diane Dodds accused some parties of dragging their feet and urged them to “step up to the plate” on the issue. The Justice Department had offered to administer the pension scheme, she said.
On Radio Ulster’s Talkback, Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly said the Northern Ireland parties had not been consulted on the legislation which had “the potential to exclude perhaps thousands of republicans and nationalists who were injured by state forces”.