Troubles pension: Victims 'treated appallingly', minister Mallon says

Image caption, The level of payment through the scheme will depend on the severity of a victim's injuries

Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has said victims waiting on a Troubles pension have been treated "appallingly" by the executive.

The scheme was due to open on 29 May.

It has been delayed by a dispute over who funds it, with estimated costs of at least 拢100m in the first three years.

Sinn F茅in has rejected a UK government accusation that it is holding the scheme up.

Speaking on Good Morning Ulster, Ms Mallon said the issue has been handled "appallingly".

"We'd struggle to find another group in our society who have been treated more appallingly," she said.

"Politicians talk a lot. They should be examined by how they treat people and what they actually do to help people. Victims have been let down time and time again and I think it is absolutely appalling."

Asked about the possibility of a 拢2.5m fund being set up for administrative functions to move the issue on, Ms Mallon said she had no knowledge of such a fund.

"This was not discussed or raised at the executive - you have actually given me more information than I've been given from executive colleagues," she said.

"All I can tell you is that I've been told none of that detail. We had an executive meeting yesterday and none of these issues were discussed."

'Beggars belief'

Also speaking on the programme, Ulster University biochemist Dr Mary Hannon Fletcher, who was paralysed after she was shot walking home from the cinema in 1975, said she was "absolutely furious" about the delays to the pension.

"I don't want to get drawn into the politics of it, but I will say that we have been campaigning for over 10 years for this recognition. To hear Stormont talking now at this stage about trying to get things organised, it beggars belief."

She said the pension was about "recognition of the harm that has been done to people in Northern Ireland through no fault of their own".

"We're getting older and that can be marked very poignantly today by the burial of one of my colleagues in [the victims group] WAVE, Paddy Cassidy.

"He died and didn't live to see this pension, and that's heart-breaking."

Dr Fletcher said the mental impact of the delays has been "really difficult".

"The reason it's so difficult is because we're being treated so badly - as if we don't count. After what we've been through, these politicians ignore us again. These people don't seem to have any heart."