Statement by TUV spokesperson John Brennan:
“It is a scandal that once again the long promised pension for innocent victims has not been delivered. This issue has been subject to political games for too long. When the failure of the Executive Office to nominate a department to take forward the scheme went to court the judge rightly said that Ms O’Neill’s actions were “fundamentally inappropriate” and to accuse her of adopting a stance motivated by “political advantage”. The court found that the Executive Office had deliberately refused to designate a Department and thus stymied the implementation of the scheme in order to get the Secretary of State to change the scheme.
“Now that even though the Department of Justice has been nominated to administer the pension, the Sinn Fein Finance Minister has failed to allocate funding for it. Many will suspect that Sinn Fein are still seeking to make including victim makers within the scope of the pension the price for paying it at all.
“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.”