Northern Ireland Assembly

Not one reference has been made to North Antrim. I submitted a request to speak, and I checked to make sure that the debate was being focused entirely on North Antrim. As Mr Paisley Jnr said, he did not refer to any other than North Antrim victims, and you should make sure that this person is called out of order.

I wish to make another point. We have determined to take one hour for the debate and we must allow ten minutes for the Minister's reply. Mr Kelly, please confine your statements to North Antrim.

The Member should be reminded that Larne is not in my constituency, which is why I did not refer to it. Part of the Larne subdivision covers the rural part of my constituency. The Larne situation, intolerable though it may be, is not part of this motion. That point should be made clear.

A LeasCheann Comhairle, Mr Paisley Jnr was very wide-ranging in his comments about North Belfast - Mr Gerry Kelly, for example - which is not part of the debate that he is engaging in.

As I said at the outset, there is no hierarchy of victims. Sinn Féin has supported compensation for victims, but that compensation must be based on equality and the fact that there is no hierarchy of victimhood. People from both sides of this community have suffered over the last 30 years, a leasCheann Comhairle. My final words are that we should give equal value to the suffering of all victims. Thank you, a leasCheann Comhairle.

I am surprised that the number of victims in North Antrim is 47. As Mr Paisley Jnr said, most people think of it as an area that has been remote from terrorism. If I compare it with West Tyrone, some of the lessons that we have learned will be of use to you in North Antrim and may develop this argument further. We have 97 direct victims. That does not include the Omagh bomb victims or groups such as those killed at Ballygawley Road, Teebane and Knocknamoe. Those on the almost vacant Benches opposite must surely have been proud of their killing prowess. North Antrim may not have the graveyards and tombstones that exist in every one of our churches and halls. That is a tribute to the violent sectarian activity of the IRA.

What has been demonstrated, and this is not just a lesson for North Antrim, is that not only have they been sidelined as an issue, but also rural spread has been a difficulty. Probably because of proximity and contact - and Mr Paisley Jnr quite rightly pointed this out - the conurbation areas and the prisoner groups could be highly organised. No matter how highly one organises it, £6 million to prisoners does not compare to less than £100,000 to the Voice organisation in West Tyrone that deals with those victims. In actual fact, of those 97 deadly acts, I should say that two were not performed by the IRA. There has to be accountability for the rural isolation.

I would also make one other plea about something that arrived in the mail on Saturday morning. It is alleged that £14 million is to be set aside for RUC victims. In one very poignant case a wife, before she received her compensation, died of a broken heart within a year. The eldest of the family, who had to bring up his brothers and sisters, has been told that he is not a victim and will get nothing out of that £14 million. I ask the two junior Ministers to bear in mind that every member of such a family is a victim.

The first political murder by the IRA was that of Senator Barnhill on the shores of Lough Foyle. The first RUC victim, murdered on the Shankill Road, was from Newtownstewart, in my constituency. The first UDR victim was also from that constituency. I can show you one graveyard with 24 victims' tombstones. That is the tribute that those brave men have earned for themselves.

I want to say to the people of North Antrim that three decades of deep-seated psychological deficits have got to be restored. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done, not just in North Antrim, but throughout Northern Ireland. The lessons of West Tyrone are just part of that pattern that needs to be put together.

I am hoping there will be a response from the junior Ministers that will be an encouragement, rather than the report I got on Saturday evening at that RUC victims' meeting. That was an insult to the families that had made such an effort.

The Junior Minister (Office of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister) (Mr Haughey): My Colleague Mr Nesbitt and I welcome today's debate. The Administration fully endorse the sentiments of the Good Friday Agreement on the need to acknowledge and address the suffering of the victims of violence.

I was reminded very forcefully that we have suffered many forms of violence in our community: prejudices, violent words and violent actions. They have all contributed to the obscenity that was visited upon this community in the last 30 years.

To end all that to bring about a peaceful and normal society, and a process of reconciliation, the Administration attach the highest priority to dealing with victims' needs positively.

We welcome the opportunity to hear Members' views on that. However, to suggest, as Mr Paisley did in introducing this debate, that there is a dynamic policy at the heart of Government - those are his words - to neglect victims is simply absurd. Such hyperbole is not conducive to rational debate and does not assist the cause of victims or their case.

The actions contained in the Programme for Government demonstrate the Administration's commitment to dealing with victims' issues, as does the setting up of the Victims' Unit. We recognise the need for concerted, co-ordinated effort across Departments, over a number of years, as well as the need for close co-operation with the Northern Ireland Office.

We are determined to ensure that practical help and support is made available to all victims in an equitable, inclusive basis, according to their needs. I assure John Kelly that parity in this regard is central to the approach of the Administration to the question of victims.

The Victims Unit, which I have referred to, aims to co-ordinate activities and raise awareness of victims' issues across the devolved Administration. In line with the Bloomfield Report, the first priority in providing greater recognition for victims is to assure them of better social, economic, medical, and other practical support. The vast majority of those areas are now the responsibility of the devolved Administration, and we take very seriously our responsibilities to ensure that victims get the best possible service in those areas that the Administration can provide.

The interdepartmental working group on victims has been reconstituted. The terms of reference have been agreed and work is progressing on developing a cross- departmental strategy, on which there will be wide consultation with victims and with victims' groups. We would welcome Members encouraging victims' groups in their constituencies to contact the Administration so that their views can be taken on board.

A rolling programme of visits to victims' units across Northern Ireland is well under way. This forms part of a publicity strategy, which includes plans to develop a web site, printed materials and relevant workshops. The unit has established a help-desk function to respond to specific cases directed to it by elected representatives such as Mr Paisley Jnr, Mr Gibson, Mr J Kelly and other Members who have spoken here and victims' groups. The Victims Liaison Unit has also been involved in a Social Security Agency project that is examining how to improve services to victims as well as in the development of capacity building programmes, which, as Mr Paisley Jnr and Mr Gibson quite rightly pointed out, are so essential. Certain groups have not had the experience or time, unlike others, to develop the skills necessary to access funding and deal with the administration. Capacity building is therefore very important.

Two programmes have been started - one in Cookstown and one in Armagh - and the initial feedback on those capacity building programmes has been positive. It is also important to build capacity awareness among policy makers themselves, and a separate programme has been designed for that purpose. The programme will begin with a major conference at the end of January, which I hope all the MLAs, who have been invited, will attend. The conference will be followed by four one-day seminars. It is planned that participants from programmes for victims and policy makers will come together later in the year.

A positive relationship has developed at ministerial level, with regular meetings taking place between the Northern Ireland Office and the devolved Administration here. It is supplemented by almost daily contact, regular meetings at official level and joint work on initiatives such as capacity building. The visits carried out by the Victims Liaison Unit are helping to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each unit, and that will be supplemented in the near future by a mailshot to all victims' groups setting out which unit is responsible for which area. It is important to continue to work closely with the Northern Ireland Office to ensure that gaps in services do not appear. We are committed to doing that.

The Victims Liaison Unit is finalising plans to allocate the funding granted to it by the Executive - £200,000 from the October monitoring round, with a further bid for £120,000 from the December monitoring round. Spending options are being carefully evaluated, and since the funding is, relatively speaking, quite modest, it is important that it be used as efficiently as possible.

Decisions have yet to be finalised; therefore, I cannot give details on what direction spending will take. However, in broad terms, it is anticipated that the funding will be directed towards health projects by assisting the four trauma advisory panels, the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund and research into the needs of victims. Mr Paisley Jnr made reference to the need to talk to victims, to set up a mechanism to assess victims' needs and to hear from them what their needs are. We are well aware of that, and researching victims' needs is likely to be assisted by funding from the moneys available.

It is likely that funding available from the Peace II programme will be much more substantial. That will provide the Department with considerable resources to engage in a much broader range of activities. However, negotiations are still ongoing, so I cannot provide details on the final arrangements that will be made.

I will refer to several points that I want to deal with specifically. Mr Paisley Jnr, for instance, raised questions about individual allocations from the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust (NIVT) from the core funding available to it. Those questions really need to be directed towards the Northern Ireland Office, because the NIVT operates on moneys allocated to it by the NIO and not by the devolved Administration.

Obviously, I deplore the incident mentioned by Mr Paisley Jnr of arms being found in an office which was partly financed by the funds referred to. However, the devolved Administration have had neither involvement nor input into decisions made under the core funding scheme. In the period leading up to October 2000, grants totalling almost £74,000 were made to a group in North Antrim and, in addition, grants of almost £1 million have been made to regional organisations, one of which operates in North Antrim.

Mr Paisley Jnr referred to educational provision for prisoners, one of whom he said had been able to complete a degree. In fact, many prisoners have been able to do this. He compared that provision with the situation of a family, a victim of violence, in which one of the children had to discontinue education because of the family's lack of resources. That is a matter of great regret. However, families whose income falls below a certain level can avoid paying fees for third-level education, and they have access to basic levels of maintenance grant support. Indeed, the Memorial Fund has provided educational bursaries for cases just like that, in which families have found themselves in such a position.

Criminal injuries are a matter for the NIO, not for the devolved Administration. In providing practical assistance to victims of violence and their families, the Memorial Fund has allocated grants for respite care, in suitable cases, for needy families.

In the past the NIO has made a direct allocation of £6.25 million for victims, in addition to the mainstream funding being sought. Victims' organisations that have received this funding are not excluded from seeking money from other sources and particularly from the Peace Fund, which will come on-stream in due course.

Those are the major issues to which Members referred. If I have omitted to deal with any point raised, I will be glad, on notification by the Member concerned, to respond in writing.

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