Victims welcome Troubles pension ruling, Sinn Fein says it will now implement payments

High Court Judge Mr Justice McAlinden today found that Northern Ireland’s Executive Office deliberately and unlawfully refused to advance the pensions scheme.

Mr Justice McAlinden held that Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill is still not complying with a legal obligation to designate a Stormont Department to oversee payments in a bid to force the UK government into providing funding.

Sinn Fein claims the British government policy is discriminatory and could unfairly exclude many republicans.

Throughout the hearing the judge repeatedly indicated that Ms O’Neill, the party’s most senior representative in the Stormont administration, is ignoring the rule of law by her stance.

In a scathing verdict, he described claims that it was permissible to delay allocation of the compensation programme for political reasons as “arrant nonsense”.

The judge declared: “What is in reality being done is that the Executive Office is deliberately stymieing the implementation of the scheme in order to pressure the Secretary of State to make a different scheme which will be substantially directly funded by Westminster and which will have very different entitlement rules.”

Rejecting claims that it was a legitimate stance aimed at forcing changes, he added: “This is a truly shocking proposition.

“It demonstrates either wilful disregard for the rule of law, or abject ignorance of what the rule of law means in a democratic society.”

With immediate action now expected before a final order is made in seven days, he expressed hope that the finding of illegality will set in motion a chain of events towards grant funding being provided.

In response, Stormont’s deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill has agreed to progress the compensation scheme.

The determination came in legal challenges by two victims to the continued impasse around introducing the scheme, which has an estimated cost of £100 million.

Jennifier McNern lost both legs in an IRA bomb attack on the Abercorn Restaurant in Belfast city centre in March 1972.

Proceedings were also brought by Brian Turley, one of the so-called ‘Hooded Men’ detained and subjected to special interrogation methods by the British military in the early 1970s.

Ms McNern welcomed the High Court decision.

“I should never have had to take this case,” she said. “I and other members of the WAVE Injured Group have been campaigning for too many years and until recently on our own for recognition and acknowledgement for the forgotten victims and survivors of the Troubles. None of us were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“We were at home with our families. We were at work. We were in a cafe having a coffee. We were coming home after a day out or an evening at the cinema. There were people in the wrong place and they catastrophically changed our lives for ever”.

Alan McBride the co-ordinator of the WAVE Injured Group added: “The judgement could not be clearer. The Executive needs to obey the law and implement the scheme without further delay. It should not just be a matter of law important as that is.

“There is a moral imperative to do what is right by people like Jennifer whose lives were permanently changed in an instant but for ever”.

Outside court Mr Turley welcomed the ruling, insisting the Executive Office now has seven days to take immediate action on the pension scheme.

“How do the Executive explain the profound unprofessionalism of their approach to victims?” he said.

“As a survivor of torture, I was left with long term injuries as a result of the actions of the State.

“The delay in having to wait on my right to a pension can only be described as another form of torture.”

Kenny Donaldson, Director of Services, with victims group SEFF, also welcomed the news.

“The pension is intended as an acknowledgement for those innocents within society who did not seek to bring about harm to others, they are the people who have been discriminated against and who have to endure 25 years of appeasement of terrorism and its’ political annexes,” he said. “Enough is Enough.”

Ulster Human Rights Watch, also welcomed the decision. Advocacy Manager, Axel Schmidt, said: “This ruling leaves no room for doubt and no justification for delaying the scheme any longer.

“The Executive Officer (TEO) has been ordered by the High Court to get on with nominating a Department to oversee the scheme. The Department of Justice has indicated its willingness to perform this function, so it’s now time to get on with the work.

“I do hope there will be no more obstacles placed in the way of the scheme which was due to be introduced in late May. Months of delaying tactics over who qualified as a victim have resulted in further anguish for innocent victims of terrorism and that was a deplorable and mean thing to do.”

The Commissioner for Victims and Survivors also welcomed today’s court decision.

“It is essential that the mechanisms to deliver this payment to those who have suffered the most as a result of the Troubles are put in place immediately,” Judith Thompson said.

“The Commission is currently taking legal advice on the issue of the guidelines advising on conditions for those who can apply, but disquiet about those guidelines should not be a barrier to putting the scheme in place.

“People have died in the time that this delay has occurred, and we cannot afford for that to continue to happen. It is important to realise that this is not a tremendous payday for any seriously injured Victim and Survivor and the bar is high for the level of injury that has to be proven before any payment will be made.”

Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill responded that the pension scheme was not created by the Executive but came from Westminster.

“However, the Executive is being forced to implement it,” she said.

“It is not the type of scheme envisaged under the Stormont House Agreement and is completely inconsistent with the legal and agreed definition of a victim.”

However she said that in light of the court ruling, she is “left with no alternative other than to designate a department” which will implement the scheme.

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