Hopefully the long wait is about to end for innocent victims

Yes, the party’s Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill, in a press release issued shortly after the ruling, said that she will now nominate a Stormont department to oversee the scheme, but contained in the same press release was the familiar attempt at justifying why the deputy first minister has delayed the scheme’s implementation.

By insisting that the victims’ pension scheme is “exclusionary, discriminatory and divisive”, Ms O’Neill continues to claim that those who sought to maim and kill during the Troubles, and were injured by their own hand, be treated equally with innocent victims of terrorism.

As Arlene Foster said, regardless of Sinn Fein’s woefully misguided views about the eligibility of the scheme, it is repugnant that it has known full well that its stance has deeply hurt those clearly eligible for payments.

It has taken a court ruling for Ms O’Neill and her party to move on this massive issue, but at least the end should now be in sight for victims. However, a definitive timetable on the implementation of the scheme is needed so victims know for sure when they will get what they are entitled to.