Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“When the party of the victim makers holds a veto
on who can be appointed as Victims’ Commissioner, little wonder deadlock prevails in the dysfunctional Executive Office on this important issue.
“It is a commentary in its own right on the unworkability of the Stormont arrangements that the need for a Victims’ Commissioner itself falls victim to the shambles that is the office of the First Ministers.
“Last time the outcome was a disastrous choice of a Commissioner who lamentably failed innocent victims. Of course, unless and until the obscene definition of ‘victim’, whereby perpetrators are treated the same as their victims, is changed, then, the innocent will never have the service and representation they deserve.
“Let down by Westminster on the iniquitous amnesty proposal and by Stormont in failing to provide them with a champion, innocent victims are again the casualty of political chicanery.”