SAOIRSE32

Irelandclick.com

By Áine MCEntee & Ciarán Barnes
North Belfast News
17/11/2006

Priest says high rise flats not the answer

A Catholic priest in North Belfast has thrown his weight behind the campaign to fight the nearly 1,000 apartments which are being planned by private developers in the area.
Father Michael Sheehan of St Patrick’s Church in Donegall Street has marked his corner by saying he totally against the whole aspect of a multi-high rise skyline. The priest has already spearheaded a petition against plans to transform land in Donegall Street Car Park into nearly 250 apartments.
With more plans on the way to change the landscape of lower North Belfast into high rises Fr Sheehan said looking at blocks already built, it was clear to see that people on housing executive waiting lists were being put there.
“If there was a need for private apartments how come they are being occupied on a basis of social housing. Why are people made to pay exorbitant rents like £500 a month? We know lots of them are lying empty. It just doesn’t make any sense. What is clear is that private investors are using people just to make money.”
In September Fr Sheehan personally hand delivered over 600 letters of objection to the Planning Service over proposals to build 244 apartments.
Fr Michael Sheehan said worshippers at the church had individually signed the letters, which state their ‘strong objection’ to the proposed 11-storey-high development because it didn’t fit in with the architectural heritage and scale of the surrounding area.
Objectors also criticised the plans because the multi storey block would obliterate the spire of the church and severely limit the amount of light through its historic rose window.
The site had been earmarked for social housing where Clanmil Housing Association was due to build 70 new family homes. Fr Sheehan said his concerns were shared by Belfast Improved Housing, Belfast Buildings Preservation Trust, Hearth Housing, the Bishop of Down and Connor Patrick Walsh, St Patrick’s and St Joseph’s Housing Group and the Ulster Heritage Society.
He said the government and HE needed to understand they “couldn’t force change. I think a mixture of private and social and a balance of that, is going to be quite hard to achieve. But building too big and too tall is not going to help.”

‘Car boot’ sell-off of land sparks off protest

St Patrick’s and St Joseph’s Housing Group are set to take their campaign for equality of housing for Nationalists in North Belfast to the streets.
Next month a large scale protest is being planned for Donegall Car Park where land earmarked for social housing was sold off to a private developer.
The protest is being organised by the housing group to highlight what they claim is ‘blatant greed’ by private developers who are buying up swathes of land especially in the Carrick Hill, Docks, Library Quarter areas.
Their protest against the “car boot sale of prime land”, ring fenced for social housing by housing associations is being planned for December 15.
Almost 1,000 apartments are now in the planning for the area, dubbed the North West Quarter by the Department of Social Development (DSD) last week.
DSD minister David Hanson said he wanted to regenerate the area, from Millfield BIFHE campus right up to Clifton Street on the back of private investment.
“We are calling housing groups and community organisations to join us,” chairman of St Patrick’s and St Joseph’s Liam Wiggins said.
“It’s clear to see that land meant to build family homes for the thousands of people on the waiting list in North Belfast is simply going to the highest bidder and the government is just sitting back and letting it happen
“It’s a free for all and it has to be stopped. The North Belfast Housing Strategy was launched six years ago and half way through we called for a review into how it was meeting its objectives for both communities. This didn’t happen and their review of the strategy is only being published they say at the end of this month. What use is that to anyone, when it is blatantly apparent it has failed Nationalists in North Belfast?”

Castle High open up school access for special needs pupils

A North Belfast high school has taken part in a groundbreaking scheme to promote better disabled access for special needs pupils.
Castle High was one of a number of schools asked to identify the issues within their school that could make disabled people feel excluded.
Factors such as smell from school toilets, noise levels and the texture of buildings were all mentioned as negative factors.
Castle High, along with the other participating schools, will now take steps to address these problems with the help of the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB).
“The idea was simple enough – to provide a selection of schools with a digital camera and allow pupils to explore areas in the school where they felt included and excluded,” said the BELB’s David Ryan.
“The pupils then photographed the location and provided a short caption to their photograph to explain why they felt included or excluded. In one of the schools a number of staff also made a contribution to the project.
“This is important as it will now inform Belfast Education and Library Board in terms of its Accessibility Strategy.”

Sinn Féin delegation meets with housing minister and HE chief

Sinn Féin has branded the Housing Executive’s strategy launched six years ago to tackle housing need in North Belfast as a complete failure
A Sinn Féin delegation, including MLA Kathy Stanton and Cllr Danny Lavery met with Direct Rule minister responsible for housing David Hanson and Housing Executive boss Paddy McIntyre on Tuesday of this week to highlight their grave concerns and frustration at their lack of any tangible progress to date.
The North Belfast News has obtained the most up to date housing stress figures for those in urgent need of a house. In 2000 80 per cent of that list were Catholic, and 20 per cent Protestant.
Today six years on and with less than a year of the North Belfast Housing Strategy’s seven year life span remaining, that figure has only dropped to 77 per cent.
And in that time according to housing campaign group St Patrick’s and St Joseph’s less than a dozen new houses have been built in District 4, which includes New Lodge, Carrick Hill and Whitewell.
During this week’s meeting the Sinn Féin politicians pressed Paddy McIntyre on the figures. They had called for this meeting five months ago.
“He just couldn’t give us any answers and the responses he did give had no substance,” Kathy Stanton said.
“No matter what way the Housing Executive twists their statistics, their own figures paint a bleak picture. Nationalists are only three per cent better off than they were six years ago.
“This strategy was launched to tackle the housing needs of both Protestants and Catholics. As far as reaching that goal on purely objective needs, the strategy has completely and utterly failed,” Kathy Stanton said.
“There is a failure by the HE and DSD to have any vision about how these issues are going to be resolved – no plan how these are going to be addressed, no timeframe, no commitment for delivery, no budgets.”
As well as slamming the strategy, the HE boss and David Hanson were also taken to task on the issue of housing families in the New Lodge tower blocks.
Only a matter of weeks ago in this paper we highlighted the case of one young mother whose baby son had a critical breathing condition who was housed on the tenth floor.
The delegation also highlighted their fears that land bordering on the edge of the city centre was being snapped up by private developers to build sky-rise apartment blocks.
“The DSD say they are committed to targeting social need, but this means absolutely nothing if there isn’t any change on the ground,” Councillor Danny Lavery said.
“Housing need needs to be addressed no matter if its in the Shankill, Ardoyne, New Lodge or Tigers Bay.”
The Committee on the Administration of Justice recently released a report on equality.
In its section on housing, the CAJ report illustrated using the HE’s own figures, the substantial difference in waiting times between Catholics and Protestants.
Danny Lavery said putting social housing on the planned regeneration of the former Girdwood barracks and giving North Queen Street barracks back to the community, would go some way towards easing that stress.
“We’re adamant that social housing needs to be an integral part of any development for the site,” he said.
Kathy Stanton said it was crucial that the HE and DSD acted before more land was grabbed by private developers.
“We wanted to raise these outstanding issues at the highest possible ministerial level, to show that areas of discrimination are still as glaringly obvious as they were 30 years ago after the Executive was first established.”

Executive defends its record – area manager claims strategy cannot be deemed a failure

Maurice Johnston, Housing Executive’s Area Manager for Belfast said:
“We recognised at the very beginning of our Housing Strategy that tackling the long standing, complex and very difficult housing problems in North Belfast was never going to be an easy task. The deeply segregated nature of housing in North Belfast was always going to get in the way of addressing the housing issues in this area and the Housing Strategy acknowledged this at the very outset.
The housing problems were such, however, that we could not just sit back and wait until the political situation had improved and so we embarked on a strategy that would go at least some way to address the housing need and housing unfitness in all the areas of North Belfast.
Without this strategy, there would not have been £172million invested in housing. Without this strategy, there would not have been one thousand, one hundred and thirteen new homes built, 80% of which were built in Catholic areas to reflect the level of Catholics on the waiting list. The North Belfast Housing Strategy secured this investment for North Belfast and this cannot be classed as a failure.
The strategy is due to end next year therefore a review of it is currently being concluded and will be issued for consultation to all community groups, politicians and interested parties at the end of the month for them to respond to in detail.
The purpose of this review is to look at what progress has been made to date and to establish where we go from here. We will be inviting and encouraging everyone to give their viewpoint on what action should be taken in the future to address the housing issues in North Belfast.”

Housing statistics :
In 2000 80 per cent of the housing stress waiting list in North Belfast was made up of Catholics.
• In March 2005 82 per cent catholic, with 18 per cent Protestant
• In March 2006 it stood at 78 per cent Catholic
• In June 2006, it stands at 77 per cent Catholic

Irelandclick.com

By Ciarán Barnes
North Belfast News
17/11/2006

Supporters of the Shoukri brothers are believed to be behind the death threats issued to around a dozen Ardoyne residents this week.

The PSNI called to the homes of 11 people on Tuesday to warn them that their lives are in danger.
Officers told them that they are being targeted by a loyalist group called the Protestant Reaction Force.
The name is thought to be a cover for supporters of the Shoukri brothers.
Since being forced out of the UDA in the summer the Shoukri mob has been behind a number of incidents designed to embarrass the organisation.
In September Irish government official Áine de Baróid was forced to quit her Belfast home after being given a death threat. The threat came from supporters of the Shoukri brothers.
Ms de Baróid had been involved in a series of meetings between the Irish government and UDA.
A spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group, which gives political advice to the UDA, blamed the Ardoyne death threats on the Shoukri gang.
He said: “These threats are another attempt by the Shoukri brothers to embarrass the UDA, but they lack any credibility.
“The Shoukri gang should realise that they are only embarrassing themselves. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows these threats have nothing to do with the UDA.”
Ardoyne Sinn Féin councillor Margaret McClenaghan condemned the threats.
She said: “In the present political atmosphere there should be no reason why anyone would want to threaten another individual.
“However, these threats prove there are people out there hell bent on trying to put fear into members of this community. They must not be allowed to succeed.”

Irelandclick.com

By ÁIne McEntee
North Belfast News
17/11/2006

This week the North Belfast News reveals that six years into the Housing Executive’s North Belfast Housing Strategy a staggering 77 per cent of those in housing crisis are Catholics.
The figure as of June 2006 shows that there are 2,058 people anxiously waiting for a house or accommodation on their lists. 71 per cent of people on this list are Catholic. On the Executive’s list of those in urgent housing need, which refers to those with 30 points or more, that figures stands at 1,208. Alarmingly Catholics make up 77 per cent of this tally.
It also means that nearly 900 people are hidden under the 30 point barrier.
In 2000, the figures for the same category of housing stress stood at 80 per cent with 20 per cent of those in urgent housing need perceived as Protestant.
In that time the HE has insisted it has spent over £170 million in North Belfast towards its aim of addressing housing problems. In the HE’s annual report this year published in March it stated it would be publishing a review of strategy in August 2006. This has now been delayed to the end of November.
The HE has confirmed the review will be distributed for consultation to all community groups, politicians and interested parties at the end of November for them to respond to in detail. With less than a year to go, housing campaigners and politicians in North Belfast have slammed the strategy as a failure and are calling on HE and the government department with responsibility for housing to step up to the mark and deliver fair and affordable social housing for Nationalists.

Irelandclick.com

Andersonstown News
20/11/2006

West Belfast MP Gerry Adams has expressed his sadness at the death of prominent Irish American Frank Durkan.
The Sinn Féin president expressed his condolences after the death in New York of veteran Civil Rights lawyer Frank Durkan (76) on Thursday.
On his visit to New York last week the Sinn Féin leader, who knew Mr Durkan for many years, spoke on the phone to the Irish American leader as he lay in hospital.
“Ireland has lost an indefatigable champion of Irish freedom and peace,” said Mr Adams.
“For decades Frank Durkan has played a central part in every major campaign by Irish America in support of equality, peace and justice in Ireland.
“As Chairman of the Americans for a New Irish Agenda group he helped engage with and shape the Clinton presidency’s policy toward Ireland. And over many years of legal work he successfully defended many Irish republicans against extradition.
“Frank was also a proud and active member of the Mayo Society and served as President of the Mayo Football Club of New York.”
Mr Adams said that that Mr Durkan would be greatly missed.
“Frank was a good friend who always kept faith with the struggle for freedom and justice in Ireland.
“I want to extend to his family and friends and associates my deepest sympathies and condolences,” he added.

BN.ie

20/11/2006 - 12:56:06

In the North, a High Court judge has opened the possibility of the Northern Secretary Peter Hain being charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He was speaking at the latest hearing into Mr Hain’s improper appointment of a victims commissioner.

Brenda Downes won the case against Mr Hain’s appointment.

Brenda Downes, whose husband, Sean, was killed by a police plastic bullet, argued that Mr. Hain had acted improperly in consulting only the DUP before appointing Bertha McDougal, whose police officer husband was shot dead by the INLA.

The judge found in her favour and added that senior civil servants in the Northern Ireland Office had supplied incorrect information to the court.

He ordered an immediate inquiry into what he said was a very serious attempt to mislead the court.

Mr Hain’s response is that he is considering the judgement but defends his position.

BN.ie

20/11/2006 - 15:14:06

It will be several political lifetimes before policing and justice powers are transferred to a devolved government in the North if Sinn Féin continues to delay moves to endorse the police, Gerry Adams’s party was warned today.

After the first meeting of the Programme for Government Committee, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson insisted Sinn Féin needed to move first to create community confidence in policing and justice matters being handled by power sharing ministers.

The East Belfast MP said: “At the rate Sinn Féin are going at the present time it will be several political lifetimes.

“They really have to get down to it. It is essential that they recognise the need to build confidence out there in the community.

“It doesn’t exist. I cannot see it for the foreseeable future existing and like Nigel (Dodds, his party colleague) – indeed I think I probably said it before Nigel that it wouldn’t be in my lifetime, let alone my political lifetime.

“So it is up to them. They have to create the political confidence with the community that these issues can be dealt with.”

Mr Robinson’s comments were a stark reminder of the main obstacle to power sharing government being restored next March.

The DUP wants Sinn Féin to publicly endorse the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

However Sinn Féin insists it cannot hold a special party conference to change its policy towards the PSNI without a date for the transfer of policing justice powers and agreement on the type of government department that will handle it.

Mr Robinson headed the DUP’s delegation at the inaugural meeting of the committee cast with preparing a programme for Government for a new power sharing administration.

The Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams claimed after the meeting that it represented progress.

“It’s inch by inch,” the West Belfast MP said. “But given that some people used to say ’not an inch’ that’s, I think, quite appropriate.”

Mr Adam said the party did not get into a discussion on the transfer of policing and justice powers.

“The parties had discussed economic issues and also procedural issues about how the committee would work.

“We have agreed to at least look at sub-committees to look at economic issues but also policing, rural regeneration, to bring forward an anti-poverty strategy,” the Sinn Féin leader confirmed.

The meeting was chaired by the Assembly’s deputy speaker, Francie Molloy of Sinn Féin.

Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey described the meeting as a gathering of the Shadow Executive, the virtual Shadow Executive and said it was not quite clear what type of a meeting it was.

The East Belfast Assembly member said his party had also asked the Northern Secretary Peter Hain to explain why the cross community Alliance Party was now being excluded from discussions.

“It’s not clear how this is going to settle down,” the former Stormont Economy Minister said.

“The one thing that is clear are the things that matter to people.

“There are things like water charges that are coming down the road very fast. There are things concerning the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s financial package.

“There are matters concerning education and a whole range of issues that people are very concerned about and which people in this building need to be doing something about.”

BBC

A Belfast man who has served 24 years in prison for the murder of three of his Irish Army colleagues could be transferred to Northern Ireland.

Michael McAleavey could be transferred to Northern Ireland

Prison chiefs in Northern Ireland have agreed to accept Michael McAleavey, 45, from Mountjoy Jail in Dublin. He could be in Northern Ireland by Christmas.

However, the final decision lies with the Irish government.

McAleavey received a life sentence for the 1982 killings in Lebanon, where the soldiers were UN peacekeepers.

He shot fellow privates Peter Burke and Thomas Murphy and Corporal Gary Morrow at Tibnin Bridge, South Lebanon on 27 October 1982.

McAleavey, from west Belfast, originally said his unit had been attacked by Lebanese gunmen but later admitted that he had “cracked” under a combination of pressure and heat exhaustion and killed his colleagues.

He is one of the longest serving prisoners in Ireland.

He has fought for several years to be repatriated to Northern Ireland, so that he can be closer to his family.

If he is successful on this occasion, he will then apply to the Life Sentence Review board to win his release.

NI Prisons Minister Paul Goggins has confirmed that he has no objections to the transfer.

The matter now lies with the Republic’s Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

Michael McAleavey killed three other Irish Army soldiers

McAleavey’s solicitor, Joe Rice said he hoped that the transfer could be dealt with as quickly as possible, on humanitarian grounds, given the age of his client’s father.

“He has served his time, he has been a model prisoner in the Irish prison system and that is accepted by the many reports over the years,” Mr Rice said.

The solicitor said that it seemed that his client was getting a raw deal compared to paramilitary killers who were released early as part of the peace process.

“If he had joined one of the illegal armies in Northern Ireland and had been convicted, he would have been released under the Good Friday Agreement,” he said.

“But because he joins the legitimate army of the Irish Republic, he finds himself in this situation.”

The families of his victims and the Irish military authorities are understood, however, to be opposed to any relocation out of the state.

Despite indications from the Irish government from as far back as 1993 that McAleavey was to be released, he remains in Mountjoy prison.

Speaking to Belfast newspaper, the Irish News, last year, in what was his first newspaper interview in 22 years, McAleavey insisted that his call for repatriation was not meant to hurt his victims’ families.

“In all my 22 years in prison I have never sought publicity,” he said.

“One of the major reasons for this is that I have always reflected on how an open appeal in the media would affect the families of the soldiers who were killed. I have hoped never to add to the burden of their suffering.

“And I hope that this appeal is seen only for what it is, a humanitarian application for transfer to another prison that is close to my family.”

A Northern Ireland Prison Service spokesman said: “We will take him and we are about to inform the Department of Justice in the Republic that is the case, but the final decision as to whether he will be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence in Northern Ireland rests with them.”

BBC

Fibres found on a Lisburn car bomb were ‘indistinguishable’ from those found at the home of Omagh bomb suspect Sean Hoey, Belfast Crown Court has heard.

Senior NI forensic scientist Dr Ruth Griffin said she found five fibres on items recovered from Mr Hoey’s house at Molly Road in Jonesborough.

She said they matched fibres recovered from a timer power unit from a car bomb defused in Lisburn in May 1998.

Mr Hoey denies 58 charges including the murder of 29 people in Omagh in 1998.

Dr Griffin said it was unusual to find matching fibres in a random search, but she said she had found no fibres linking Hoey to the Omagh bomb or any of the other devices he is accused of building.

The case continues.

BBC

A leading north Belfast loyalist has been jailed for 10 years for an attack on a nightclub doorman.

Mark Haddock was convicted of assaulting a pub doorman

Mark Haddock, 37, originally from Mount Vernon Park, was convicted in September of grievous bodily harm with intent against doorman Trevor Gowdy in 2002.

Sentencing him, the judge said it was an “act of conspicuous savagery”.

Haddock, an alleged informer, had been named in court as a leading member of the Ulster Volunteer Force. He survived a gun attack on 30 May.

Mr Gowdy was attacked at a social club in Monkstown in December 2002.

He was hit on the head and body with an iron bar, a hatchet and a bat, and suffered an “open” fractured skull, broken leg as well as various cuts and bruises.

Police found him lying unconscious on the ground.

He is now living in England under a witness protection scheme.

‘Gangland attack’

Haddock was subsequently cleared of attempting to murder Mr Gowdy. However, he was convicted of false imprisonment and setting fire to a car.

Haddock appeared before Belfast Crown Court on Monday via video link from prison.

Mr Justice Weatherup said: “This was an act of conspicuous savagery and a despicable act upon this man.

“He was put in fear of his life and but for his own resourcefulness, I do not doubt he would have been removed from the scene and further punishment inflicted upon him.

“This type of gangland attack cannot be tolerated.”

Haddock was shot six times in the Doagh Road area of Newtownabbey, County Antrim, in May. At the time, he was on bail awaiting judgement in the case.

Guardian

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday November 19, 2006
The Observer

Two Republican terror groups opposed to the Good Friday Agreement have denied they are involved in any plot to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. The Irish National Liberation Army and the Continuity IRA said this weekend there are no plans to assassinate Sinn Fein leaders. They also condemned any threats to the two Sinn Fein MPs even though they were political enemies.

The INLA and its political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, described claims by Adams that he and Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly were under threat as ‘nonsense’.

An INLA spokesman told The Observer that the allegation was ‘designed to stifle debate about policing inside Sinn Fein’.

Last Monday the Sinn Fein leadership held a press conference during which Adams claimed they had been warned to step up their personal security due to threats from an alliance of anti-Good Friday Agreement republicans.

This was linked, it was later alleged, to a series of meetings between INLA and other dissident republicans across Northern Ireland to map out a strategy aimed at opposing the St Andrews Agreement. Dissident republicans and a number of activists inside Sinn Fein have been fiercely critical of that part of the St Andrews deal which requires the party to sign an oath pledging support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

‘The INLA would be totally opposed to targeting any republican. As we have learnt bitterly from the past there is nothing worse in republican eyes than Irishmen killing Irishmen,’ the INLA spokesman said.

The terror group has emerged from a series of internal feuds dating back to its split with the Official IRA 31 years ago.

Meanwhile the Continuity IRA, whose representatives never attended any of the six meetings held since October, said they posed no threat to Sinn Fein’s high command.

In a statement this weekend, a senior member of CIRA said their members would be signing their own death warrant if they targeted Adams, McGuinness or Kelly.

‘We have absolutely no intention of targeting Adams or any other member of Sinn Fein. We would be absolutely mad to do it,’ the CIRA spokesman said.

But he said the Sinn Fein leadership ‘need to start looking closer to home’ regarding the threats. CIRA also stressed that there had been no links forged between the organisation and any of the other dissident republican groups.

The mainstream republican movement faces an enormous ideological battle over policing.

Sinn Fein cannot re-enter devolved government in Belfast unless the party signs a pledge alongside Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists to support the police and the rule of law in Northern Ireland.

In January Sinn Fein will hold a special delegate conference during which the party will vote on whether to let Martin McGuinness sign the pledge.

DUP strategists insisted on the pledge during the St Andrews’ negotiations in October because they believed that if Sinn Fein fully backs the police it signals that the IRA is finally redundant.

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge
20 November 2006

Northern Ireland’s second knife amnesty begins today until Monday December 11. Knife disposal bins will be located at civic amenity sites across Ulster.

Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said: “Following Northern Ireland’s first amnesty in June of this year, 886 knives were taken off our streets. I hope that with this second amnesty we can build on that success and take even more dangerous and offensive weapons out of circulation.

” People depositing knives at the civic amenity sites will not be investigated by police for taking such action. However, police will still investigate, arrest and charge those in possession of knives as an offensive weapon in all other circumstances.”

Policing Board Chairman, Professor Sir Desmond Rea urged people to dispose of knives.

“By doing this you can help ensure that your family’s Christmas is not ruined by knife crime.”

Sinn Féin

Published: 20 November, 2006

Newry and Mourne councillor Brendan Curran has become the first ever Sinn Féin member of the Board of the Housing Executive.

Commenting on his appointment following nomination by Housing Council, Cllr
Curran said:

“It has been a long standing anomaly that no Sinn Féin elected representative has ever been a member of the Housing Executive Board, despite the fact that representatives from all of the other main parties have been on the Board.

“This is an important opportunity at a time when there are huge pressures on social housing, not least with the year on year under provision of new social built homes and increasing numbers of homeless people.

“There are also very serious problems with the allocation system and concerns that across the north that housing is not always being allocated fairly. Indeed the spark that lit the civil rights movement in the 1960’s was a result of discrimination in housing allocation in Caledon.

“The Housing Executive faces a number of challenges. I look forward to finally being in a position to bring an Irish republican analysis into the workings of the Board of the Housing Executive.” ENDS

Note to Editor

No Sinn Féin elected representative has ever been a member of the Housing Executive Board. Cllr Curran has been a member of the Housing Council for 8 years.

Sinn Féin

Published: 20 November, 2006

Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Antrim and party spokesperson on victims issues Philip McGuigan today said that the referral of the case taken by Brenda Downes into Peter Hain’s appointment of the interim Victims Commissioner to the British Attorney General, was significant and important given the very serious issues exposed by the case.

Mr McGuigan said:

“The serious issues and abuses of procedure which this case has exposed raise very significant issues for Peter Hain and his department. Since the High Court verdict Peter Hain has attempted to dismiss the court findings and has arrogantly insisted that neither he nor his department have done anything wrong.

“This position is clearly not tenable and the decision by the court to refer the case to the British Attorney General increases the pressure on Mr Hain to face up to the enormity of the situation he finds himself in.

“The case has already exposed the fact that the appointment of Bertha McDougal was a political sop to the DUP and could never command the sort of cross community support required.

“Peter Hain now needs to stop pretending that he has not created a serious problem. He needs to begin to undo some of the damage and hurt he has caused by his approach to this appointment and indeed the British State approach to
the issue of victims and the role they have played in the conflict.

“A first step along this road would be for Mr Hain to apologise for his
conduct and establish the inquiry demanded by the court into his conduct and
that of his department in this case without further delay and for its
findings to be made public.” ENDS