Commenting on the Bill being debated today TUV party chairman councillor Keith Ratcliffe said:
“This Bill does not command the support of innocent victims of terrorism. It does not address their concerns and merely continues the policy of successive governments since the Belfast Agreement of looking at victims as best as an inconvenience and at worst an embarrassment to a process which elevated victim makers to the heart of government in Northern Ireland.
“Throughout the process of framing this legislation the views of those impacted by terrorists have been ignored and frankly we are closer to an amnesty today than we ever were.
“Bad as the Belfast Agreement was, at least terrorists were released as convicts on licence. Now, a quarter of a century later, legislation is being put in place which will aid them in the rewriting of history. As someone who represents an area of Northern Ireland which was most deeply impacted by terrorism, I find that abhorrent.”