TUV savages Belfast City Council over Bobby Storey fiasco after bill for lawyers is revealed - but not compensation payments

Belfast City Council on Tuesday apologised once again for its handling of the affair and said it “recognises the hurt which has been caused by its actions”.

This comes after the BBC revealed the total amount spent on legal fees over the issue had been £94,171.99.

The number came to light thanks to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC; under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, public bodies are obliged to hand over information about their policies, archives, finances and more when asked (although they often attempt to dodge these obligations).

In this case, the BBC had to enlist the help of the Information Commissioners’ Office, a body which is meant to make the authorities comply with the law, in order to get the council to cough up the figures.

According to the BBC, the sum includes £50,000 spent on a barrister-run inquiry into what had happened.

But the council refuses to say how much – if anything – it has paid in compensation to families who were left in the lurch by its decision to accommodate the family and friends of the dead IRA enforcer at Roselawn Crematorium (it emerged in the aftermath of the event that the council had barred eight families from having a service at Roselawn so it could handle Mr Storey’s service).

This means the true cost to the public purse could be much higher – though the council said revealing this would be a “breach of confidence".

His funeral – complete with a mass uniformed gathering on the Falls Road and a politician-studded set of graveyard orations – took place despite tight restrictions on movement and assembly imposed by the government to quash the Covid outbreak.

TUV councillor Ron McDowell (the party’s sole representative on the council, covering the Court district in north Belfast) said on Tuesday: "Three years down the line we still see no attempts of amends from Belfast City Council but rather more stalling, vagueness and a failure to honour their word in revealing information.

"Without a sincere effort to atone for an abhorrent lack of judgement one must only assume that the council are sorry for having being caught, and not sorry for their actions around this issue.

"The Bobby Storey funeral caused great hurt to people across Northern Ireland who had buried their loved ones in accordance with the law at the time.

"Having treated Mr Storey's family differently they should at the very least be upfront about what actually transpired.

"Instead, years later they continue to cover up and conceal what the true cost of the scandal was to ratepayers.

"This is not council money. It is ratepayer money and transparency about how it is spent is key. Just a few months ago all councillors went before the electorate seeking endorsement and not a single one of them received a mandate to not be upfront about what money is spent on.

"The spurious attempts of the council to hide behind get-out clauses in the legislation are, in my view, entirely without merit.

"No one is seeking personal information about anyone. The compensation, if there was any, paid to families should be in the public domain.

"Everyone knows that this whole debacle cost the council, the Executive and the PSNI their credibility.

"It's long past time we knew the total financial cost as well."

When this was put to the council, it responded by saying: “Belfast City Council recognises the hurt which has been caused by its actions in respect of events of 30 June 2020 at Roselawn Cemetery.

“We also recognise that the public are entitled to information about how the council has dealt with these events and have made information publicly available, where possible

“The council must however also respect the privacy of those affected and cannot release information which could be considered a breach of confidence.

"We again offer our unreserved and wholehearted apology to all those families impacted by these events.”