Paisely Defends Appointment Of Four Victims' Commissioners

Just days after the partner of a murdered IRA victim appealed for a rethink on the MOD's refusal to pay her and her daughter an army pension because the couple weren't actually married, news has emerged that Northern Ireland is to have not just one, but four highly paid victims' commissioners.

The Executive had originally wanted a single commissioner on a £65,000-a-year salary, but after a recruitment process that dragged on for almost a year, the First and Deputy First Ministers decided to settle for four - a 'compromise' that stunned many.

Assembly First Minister, Rev Ian Paisley and his deputy, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness dramatically ditched the plan to appoint just one.

"Our belief is that a team of four commissioners working together - in essence a Victims' Commission - is the best way forward," said Mr Paisley.

"Given the significant backlog of urgent work and the range of difficult challenges that face us in this area, these four people will have much more capacity to engage with victims and survivors than a single commissioner."

The appointments include Bertha McDougal, whose police reservist husband Lindsay was gunned down by the INLA in Belfast in 1981.

She previously served as the Interim Victims Commissioner. Her appointment by ex-Ulster Secretary Peter Hain was deemed improper and politically motivated by a High Court judge.

Patricia MacBride, whose brother Tony was one of two IRA members killed along with a member of the SAS near the border in Co Fermanagh in 1984 is a second appointee. Her father Frank also died as a result of his injuries 17 months after being shot by loyalists in east Belfast in May 1972.

Brendan McAllister, the Director of Mediation Northern Ireland, who was involved in efforts to resolve the Drumcree marching dispute and Mike Nesbitt, a former TV news anchorman who has worked for Ulster Television and the BBC, make up the larger-than-expected team.

Alliance Party deputy leader Naomi Long claimed the appointment of four commissioners showed the First and Deputy First Ministers were unable to make important decisions.

However, DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the arrangement would be good for victims and their families.

The commission members will each receive £65,000 and will agree among themselves who will chair their meetings.

Northern Ireland's first victims' commissioner believes there is not enough 'trust within the community' to give the job to just one person.

Sir Kenneth Bloomfield said he was pleased that appointments were being made after a lengthy wait.

"Four does seem rather a large number," he said.

"But I think the reality of the thing is that there isn't yet sufficient trust on either side of the community to identify an individual with sufficient integrity to represent everybody.

"That's a very great pity and I believe there are such people. But the confidence doesn't seem to exist to go for such a person."

Meanwhile, Londonderry UDR 'widow', Mavis McFaul is still struggling to get by on income support: "It's terrible. I'm sitting here in the house and I've a mortgage over my head and all I'm getting is £79 a week," Ms McFaul said.

See: UDR Widow Refused Pension

(BMcC)