Jim Allister has slammed Troubles payment as a 'Provo pay day' - as Commission proposes compensation for all relatives - including perpetrators

The DUP has also slammed the proposal, with Emma Little Pengelly saying it is “repugnant to acknowledge victim makers in the same way as the victims they created”.

The Commission for Victims and Survivors sent its proposals to Stormont, with an estimated cost of of £130 million pounds – meaning payments are likely to be around £10,000.

In a statement Mr Allister said: “Years after a pension for innocent victims of violence was agreed, there are countless cases still caught up in bureaucracy. Even obviously deserving cases have moved at a snail’s pace. It is shameful that the victims’ commissioner has used his final major contribution not to highlight the ridiculous delays in getting pensions approved for deserving innocents, but to call for a payment of £10,000, or more, to be made to the relatives of not just victims but also victim-makers.

“There is no moral or other justification for bereavement payments to the relatives of those who lost their lives in seeking to take the lives of others. We’ve had enough Provo paydays”.

Mr Allister also questioned the legality of the compensation scheme. He said: “To have the so called ‘Victims’ Commissioner’ seeking to circumvent the law - which even in traffic accidents provides no compensation for the relatives of those killed by their own reckless driving and which denies criminal injury compensation to perpetrators - is a telling reflection on his failure in office. Of course, this poison flows from the equating of victim and victim-makers in the terror friendly definition of ‘victim’ ensconced in the 2006 legislation as part of Tony Blair’s pandering to terrorists and their ilk”.

The victims commissioner Ian Jeffers told the News Letter: “I laid this advice paper to government to highlight the needs of bereaved victims and survivors who have often felt forgotten and pushed aside when it comes to any sort of meaningful acknowledgement of their experience of picking up the pieces and trying to move forward after the death of a close family member.

“I know there will be some who find it difficult to accept the idea that all bereaved families should be included, regardless of who their deceased loved one was and I fully understand this challenge. But rather than using it as a reason to dismiss the idea of a recognition payment as a form of acknowledgement, it is now up to our politicians to consider that advice and engage in a conversation to find a way forward as was done with the Victims’ Payment Scheme for the severely injured.

“We cannot use disagreement as a reason to do nothing. Nothing has been done to appropriately acknowledge the bereaved for over 25 years since the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and it is they who suffer most if we don’t become solution focused.”

In the document, sent to Stormont’s Executive Office, victims commissioner Ian Jeffers said recipients of the payment would include a spouse/partner, parent, child and siblings – and “each should be entitled to the payment in their own right” according to the proposals.

A 2009 report by the Consultative Group on the Past – led by Robin Eames and Denis Bradley – previously proposed that the “nearest relative of someone who died as a result of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland, from January 1966, should receive a one-off ex-gratia recognition payment of £12,000”.

The proposals received widespread opposition in Northern Ireland and the report was shelved. Families of innocent victims have not received payments due to the failure to agree the scheme.

Ms Little Pengelly said: “Many victims and survivors will be deeply disappointed that the Victims Commissioner failed to take the opportunity to make clear that there is no equivalence between victim and victim maker.

“The lie that reconciliation somehow demands that victims and their perpetrators be treated the same must be robustly challenged.

“This is a ridiculous suggestion, and one that causes significant hurt to many victims. To be clear, the DUP will stand by the innocent victims and will not endorse this proposal in its current form”.