Mixed response to RIR redundancy payments

Speaking from Westminster today, DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley said that the disbandment of the RIR was a "day of shadows for Northern Ireland" as links had been lost with the UK.

The Rev Paisley added that the majority of people in the province do not believe that this is the time for defences against the terrorists should be removed.

However, while the DUP leader welcomed the redundancy package, he said that the RIR could never be fully rewarded for the role they played.

He said: "The sacrifice of the Home Service can never be adequately compensated especially taking into consideration that these members, living at home, had their homes and families targeted. The price of their life’s blood, which many of them sacrificed can never be valued. Therefore the enhancement payments are not an attempt in anyway to put a price on the sacrifices made by these gallant men and women."

He added: "We have made no secret of the importance of this issue to us and we make no apology for making it a top priority.

"I am personally glad that the socio-economic difficulties that these men will have to face in getting employment in the Province have been recognised by the Government and we will continue to discuss these matters with the Government."

Commenting today, North Down MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon, also welcomed the financial settlement given to the Home Battalions, however she voiced her disappointment that RIR members who had retired or left the home battalions, would not receive any additional financial compensation.

Lady Sylvia said: “Although I still have reservations about the Government’s cutbacks in the current security climate, I’m pleased that the Government did not reduce the original figures but did, instead, increase them after intense lobbying by unionist politicians.

"It’s of great importance that those soldiers who have served with the regiment are able to leave with dignity and the respect they deserve.

"I do regret, however, that those who served through the most difficult periods in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in the Ulster Defence Regiment and subsequently in the Royal Irish, the vast majority of whom are retired, won’t receive any additional financial recognition for their service during the worst of the Troubles."

She called on the Government to address this issue by creating a special fund: "There should have been the equivalent of the Police Fund in today’s MoD announcement, because no one can justify the distinction between UDR/RIR soldiers and police officers when they were the victims of the same terrorist attacks."

However, Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew hit out at the Commons' decision to pay-off former UDR and RIR members, saying that it will cause outrage among nationalist families who have lost loved ones both directly and as a result of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.

In a statement released earlier today, Ms Gildernew said: "The RIR and old UDR were responsible for the murder of many nationalists and republicans both directly and as a result of collusion. The victims of this paramilitary force will be disgusted and angry at this pay-off."

She added: "Unionist arguments about the economic implications resulting from the scrapping of the RIR expose the truth about their opposition to progress on demilitarisation. It is based on unionist self-interest not the interests of the peace process or the demilitarisation of our society."

Ms Gildernew said demilitarisation would release millions of pounds for use on frontline services such as health and education and to tackle decades of under investment and neglect, particularly West of the Bann.

(EF/SP)