Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Justice McAlinden’s damning comments about Ms O’Neill’s denial of a pension to innocent victims rightly put in stark terms what the root of the problem is. For a judge at the outset of a case to describe the position of a Minister as “fundamentally inappropriate” and to accuse her of adopting a stance motivated by “political advantage” would result in calls for resign anywhere else in the United Kingdom and so it should be here.
“Ms O’Neill’s position is untenable. Having used bombs and bullets to inflict devastating life changing injuries the Republican movement is now abusing its position in government to deny its victims the pension to which they are rightly entitled.
“The pension issue illustrates in particularly stark terms the fundamental immorality of our political arrangements. The fact that the stance of Sinn Fein comes as no surprise to anyone merely underscores that everyone who has bought into this perverse system knew that Republicans have not changed.
“A society can be judged by how it treats the most vulnerable and those who have suffered most. By that yardstick there can be no doubt that Stormont has failed.”
Mr Allister will table the following priority written question tomorrow:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister what action, in light of the Pledge of Office, will be taken on foot of the finding by Justice McAlinden that the deputy First Minister’s thwarting of movement on the victims’ pension is “a patent example of an attempt to subvert the rule of law for political ends”.