Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“As if the innocent victims of terrorism haven’t suffered enough, we now have the crushing delay in their long overdue pension caused by the nigh unbelievable failure to nail down financial responsibility between Stormont and Westminster.
“Clearly this issue required to be resolved in the New Decade New Approach negotiations. But such was the blind rush to government that the subject was ignored and the leverage squandered.
“Failing to resolve funding for this most poignant of issues was a shocking neglect, bringing more traumatisation for those cruelly made victims in the first place. And, then to see that it was the DUP’s rush to reestablish government with the party associated with the cause that made most of them victims, which sacrificed their interests, is, frankly, appalling.
“Just like a change to the obscene definition of a ‘victim’ never stood in the way of successive DUP/Sinn Fein deals, so we find guaranteeing the funding of the victims’ pension was equally sacrificed to the surge for power.”