Victims Commissioners Under Fire
Am I wrong or didn't the DUP and Sinn Fein preside over the appointment of the four Victims Commissioners? I ask the question because the DUP and Sinn Fein representatives on the Stormont OFMDFM committee gave the three remaining Commissioners a real grilling this afternoon.
The DUP's Jimmy Spratt took the Commissioners to task for "trying to reinvent the wheel" by revisiting the Eames Bradley proposals on the past which he argued were "dead in the water". The former police bodyguard expressed the sceptical unionist view that any truth recovery process would be skewed against the state.
But the commissioners didn't get any easier a ride from Sinn Fein's Francie Molloy who accused them of treating the "British Secretary of State" as a neutral person and listing more historic incidents of concern to unionists than ones relevant to nationalists.
The target of this "what about-ery" was the Victims Commission's recent report on the past. The message seemed to be that the Commission should have stuck to preparing practical proposals assessing the current financial needs of victims, rather than revisiting the past. The commissioners claimed they remained on timetable for preparing a "Comprehensive Needs Assessment", but the politicians did not seem satisfied.
At one point the SDLP's Dolores Kelly expressed concern about her fellow Committee members "beating up on" the Commissioners. At another stage the DUP's Trevor Clarke clashed with Sinn Fein's Martina Anderson over her views on IRA members' role during the troubles.
Dolores Kelly had herself just emerged from a different dust up earlier in the Committee meeting, when she raised concerns over the OFMDFM "Removing Barriers to Community Prosperity Fund". Ms Kelly wondered whether the fund intended to tackle deprivation in disadvantaged areas might provide "pension plans for former paramilitaries".
This followed criticism earlier this month by the Social Development Minister Alex Attwood of what he called the "secret" fund. However the First and Deputy First Ministers, who were both giving evidence, rejected this criticism as "bizarre". Peter Robinson hit out at "scare mongering" about the fund and accused Ms Kelly of doing people in the areas concerned a disservice by putting a paramilitary tag upon them.
Dolores Kelly also tackled the First and Deputy First about their failure to greet the Pope in Scotland. Martin McGuinness responded by again saying he would meet the Pope should he visit Ireland, a visit which he predicted could take place by 2012.
Mr Robinson joked that Ms Kelly was annoyed because Pope Benedict had asked to see him and Mr McGuinness, rather than the SDLP MLA. It was a lighter moment during what seemed to be a bad tempered meeting.
I'm 
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