No fudge, no delaying tactics – after half a year SF simply cannot be allowed to stall victims’ pensions any more

However, that legislation has still to be implemented and innocent victims and survivors of ‘Troubles-related criminal violence’ continue to be failed.

We acknowledge the efforts of the Injured Group (under the banner of the WAVE group), who down the years have pressed for delivery on this issue. We have also campaigned vociferously, across the Innocent Victims United (IVU) constituency we have hundreds of members who will be entitled to apply for the pension; those who have been seriously physically and/or psychologically injured and whose injuries were and are life-changing.

For six months Sinn Fein have been allowed to manipulate the political system in preventing the pension from being advanced. There were others who were complicit in presenting the smokescreen that delay was as a result of failure to agree budget and a sponsoring Government department to administer the scheme.

It is quite clear that Westminster will engage on the budget issue, post-the agreement of an administrative department, with the Department of Justice indicating its willingness to fulfil that role.

We have stated that the budgetary issue can be resolved as follows:

A) That the UK Government covers the costs associated with the backdated monies owed through the Scheme, from the point of The Stormont House Agreement to the point when the NI Executive was re-established;

B) The NI Executive then covers the annual costs of the scheme from that point on, including the costs associated with onward transfer to carers, etc.

Through its various tentacles Sinn Fein has sought to block the legislation from being implemented unless it can further influence the eligibility issue.

We have been clear as a group since a pension was ever first mooted that:

A) No-one injured as a consequence of carrying out an offensive criminal for which they themselves were injured should be eligible to apply;

B) That there was a need for an appeals panel/board to be put in place which would adjudicate on other complex cases where individuals had histories of involvement with terrorism/criminal violence. We argued that it would not be appropriate to award such individuals a victims’ payment.

C) That those who were seriously injured and who were not at any point involved in terrorism/criminal based activity should receive the payment without any further delay.

D) That all seriously injured innocent victims/survivors have access to a pension irrespective of geographical location. The Republic of Ireland state must contribute to the NI administered scheme or introduce comparable provision in supporting those Irish citizens who were seriously injured within their state.

We stand by our previous and consistent position which we believe is accepted and supported by the majority of the victim/survivors’ sector as well as the majority of broader society.

Within the NIO’s eligibility guidelines document, circulated post-the passing of the legislation, up to 30 months is cited as the period of sentence (whether spent or otherwise) which would deem an individual still eligible to apply. We oppose on principle anyone receiving the Pension who has a ‘Troubles-related conviction’.

However we are mindful that this is the space the NIO has now entered. We are somewhat comforted by the fact that the adjudication panel will still have a role in examining such cases – eligibility does not equal entitlement.

On Friday last, South-East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) representatives had a constructive engagement with the Irish Council of Churches. We raised the matter of the pension for the seriously injured and implored them to release an agreed statement from the main churches calling upon the Executive to immediately implement the law agreed at Westminster in January and that the adjudication panel be the place where complex cases would be judged. We appealed for the church leaders to step up and insist there be no further political interference on this issue.

It needs to be recognised that no individual who lives across the UK, terrorist or otherwise, is denied access to the generous welfare and healthcare services of the state – no-one is disadvantaged. This pension is about acknowledging those who were innocents, who did not go out seeking to harm their neighbour.

There can be no fudge of the legislation agreed in January and its envisaged outworking. For once the majority position of right needs represented, the “ourselves alone” interest group must not be further appeased.

If concern exists within Sinn Fein or loyalist organisations about the needs of individuals who were attached to terror groups, then it is their responsibility to step up and provide for them; it was their ideologies which caused their “soldiers” to go out and perpetrate acts of sectarian and ethnic-motivated hatred on their neighbours. Such elements have been paid off enough by government and others.

The DUP particularly, but also the UUP, SDLP, Alliance, TUV and others need to see this through. You must not betray innocent victims, never again should innocent victims be placed in a position where they are asked to accept or support something on the basis that those who carried out violence are treated in a comparable way.

– Kenny Donaldson is a spokesman for the umbrella organisation Innocent Victims United, containing within it many Troubles victims’ groups; he is based in Lisnaskea, Fermanagh