The Northern Ireland Office today announced a new scheme which will pay out for damage to halls.

The move follows years of campaigning by the Orange Institution and unionists who say halls currently struggle to get compensation from the State and have to pay huge insurance premiums.

Last night, the Order said it was "delighted" that six years of pressing the issue had paid off.

The DUP, which had demanded the move as a unionist confidence-building measure, said it was a boost to the Protestant community.

But the Ulster Unionists, while welcoming the announcement, expressed concerns that not all Orange halls will be covered.

Secretary of State Shaun Woodward revealed the Government proposal.

At present, Orange and other community facilities need a special certificate from the PSNI Chief Constable acknowledging an attack was either terrorist related or carried out by more than three people, in order to obtain a pay-out.

In recent years, amid the downturn in terror activity, the PSNI has signed off fewer certificates.

Last year, however, there were 27 arson attacks on Orange halls and there have been three such attacks in 2008.

While they are viewed as sectarian in nature, this can generally not be proved.

Therefore, Mr Woodward said the compensation scheme would be "for criminal attacks on community halls", taking away the need for proof of sectarianism.

He said: "I intend to publish draft legislation and a consultation paper in June which will amend legislation and introduce a specific change to provide a statutory compensation scheme for those community halls which are the victims of these kind of attacks.

Entitlement

"This consultation paper will propose a new criterion in the Criminal Damage Order specific to community halls that are eligible for rates relief – including Orange halls – which would ensure that attacks would generate an entitlement for statutory compensation."

The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, in a statement, said that since March 2002 it had been lobbying Government to recognise that there was a problem that could best be addressed by new legislation.

"We are delighted that the Northern Ireland Office has finally accepted this argument," it said.

The DUP said that, with the Loyal Orders, it had waged a long campaign and it was happy that a key party demand in political negotiations had been met.

It added: "This is a great success for the Loyal Orders in Northern Ireland.

"Orange halls perform an extremely valuable function. In many communities, particularly in rural areas, the local Orange hall acts as a community centre, with a wide range of activities taking place in them, from Loyal Order events to mother and toddler groups.

"Indeed, in many places the bedrock of the community is the local Orange hall.

"All too often in the past, halls have been attacked by sectarian bigots and the owners have then been punished because they incur higher insurance premiums."

UUP MLAs Tom Elliot, Danny Kennedy and David McNarry met with NIO Minister Paul Goggins yesterday.

Disappointed

Mr Elliott said: "Whilst we welcome the Secretary of State's intention to introduce new legislation we remain very disappointed that not all Orange halls will be covered in the proposals.

"However, we recognise the potential benefits of introducing a statutory compensation scheme for Orange and community halls, but we remain adamant that all such halls should be covered and not simply those which are eligible for rates relief."