Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Years after a pension for innocent victims of violence was agreed, there are countless cases still caught up in bureaucracy. Even obviously deserving cases have moved at a snail’s pace. It is shameful that the victims’ commissioner has used his final major contribution not to highlight the ridiculous delays in getting pensions approved for deserving innocents, but to call for a payment of £10,000, or more, to be made to the relatives of not just victims but also victim-makers.
“There is no moral or other justification for bereavement payments to the relatives of those who lost their lives in seeking to take the lives of others. We’ve had enough Provo paydays.
“To have the so called ‘Victims’ Commissioner’ seeking to circumvent the law – which even in traffic accidents provides no compensation for the relatives of those killed by their own reckless driving and which denies criminal injury compensation to perpetrators – is a telling reflection on his failure in office. Of course, this poison flows from the equating of victim and victim-makers in the terror friendly definition of ‘victim’ ensconced in the 2006 legislation as part of Tony Blair’s pandering to terrorists and their ilk.
“This latest manifestation of societal empathy with terrorism must be swiftly rejected by the government.”