Allister outraged at proposed terrorist payday
23 January 2009
TUV leader Jim Allister has expressed outrage at the suggestion that terrorists killed during the Troubles could be given a £12,000 payout.
The MEP said:
“If the suggestion that The Consultative Group on the Past is to recommend government payouts of £12,000 to the families of all those killed during the Troubles – irrespective of how they met their deaths – is accurate it is nothing short of outrageous.
“No fair minded individual would equate the death of IRA Shankill bomber Thomas Begley with the deaths of the nine innocent civilians murdered in the attack he carried out. Do Lord Eames and Denis Bradley have no sense of justice?
“Of course, if such a measure were to go though it would only be an extension of the logic applied by our devolved government. Remember that Stormont employs the definition of victim contained within the The Victims and Survivors (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. The Order defines a victim or survivor as someone who is or has been physically or psychologically injured as a result of or in consequence of a conflict-related incident.
“This definition puts the terrorist injured by his own bomb on a par with the innocent victims of Enniskillen, Claudy and La Mon. This is totally unacceptable and could, if the will was there, be rectified immediately by the devolved administration. However, having twinned themselves in government with the political wing of a terrorist organisation Unionists find it impossible to deliver on this fundamental issue.”
