First victims pensions payments made while others continue to wait

Hundreds of people severely injured in Northern Ireland’s troubled past have applied for the scheme.

The first payments under the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme have started to be made. The scheme came after a long campaign by a group who people who were left severely injured in Northern Ireland’s Troubles. (Liam McBurney/PA) (PA Archive)

The first payments of a new pension for those severely injured in the Troubles have been made.

It is understood that around two of hundreds of applicants have started to receive monthly payments under the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme.

By last October some 700 applications had been made and are being processed.

Eligible recipients will be in line for payments ranging from between £2,000 and £10,000 a year.

Victims group Wave gathered on Wednesday in Belfast to mark the long battle to secure pensions for the most severely injured.

Justice Minister Naomi Long, whose department in administering the scheme, sent her apologies for not being able to attend.

In a message read to those assembled, she congratulated the campaigners who secured the scheme described an “important milestone for WAVE”.

While former Secretary of State Lord Hain sent a video message applauding the campaign, adding: “Let’s hope they get them (payments) sooner rather than later”.

Paul Gallagher from the group within WAVE which led the campaign for the pension from 2009 to 2021 said he understands payments have started to be made to two applicants.

The north Belfast man, who was paralysed after being shot by loyalists in 1994, said they were “close to the finishing line”.

Mr Gallagher described how having become involved with Wave had changed his life, and allowed his voice to be heard before becoming involved with the campaign that “got injured victims on the map”

“We had to do it for all the people out there who couldn’t speak for themselves,” he said.

Jennifer McNern, who lost both legs in a bomb blast at a Belfast restaurant in 1972, took a successful legal challenge against the Stormont Executive for delays in setting up the scheme which opened for applications last August.

She is also among those still waiting to receive payments.

Looking back to when she was injured, she said she was well looked after in hospital but after discharge, things were difficult as her mother became both hers and her sisters’ carer, and they lost their house.

She said at the start of the campaign they believed gathering 12,000 signatures and bringing them to Stormont would have made things happen and was shocked when nothing happened.

Alex Bunting, who was injured in a car bomb in 1991, described losing both his home and his business in the aftermath.

He said the campaign went to the Irish Parliament as well as Downing Street and Stormont asking for the disabled pension but said it became a “political football”.

He said all they want to do is help all the victims and survivors of the Troubles, noting that many of the older campaigners have died without seeing the payments,

“We have fought for this pension, hopefully we will get it as soon as we possibly can,” he said.

A row of burnt-out houses in Conway Street, Belfast (Archive/PA) (PA Archive)

Des McAlea, an original member of the Miami Showband who survived the loyalist roadside attack in 1975 in which three members were killed, performed for those gathered, including a performance of You’ll Never Walk Alone for the people of Ukraine.

He urged those seeking justice not to give up.

“We got there, we got convictions, we got them to say it was collusion.

“We didn’t get an apology which I believe we never will. But life is life, you have to get on with it,” he said.

“All I wish for now is people like yourselves and all other seeking justice, I pray to God that you get it because you deserve it.

“Please keep fighting, you will get there, we got there.”

Wave chief executive Sandra Peake recalled working as a nurse at the Royal Victoria Hospital and the work done there to treat those injured in the Troubles, but that that was not matched by care they received afterwards.

“For many injured people and their families they were left to go it alone with very little support,” she said.

“People have no idea of the true cost for those left to get on with their lives.”

Meanwhile artist Colin Davidson, who painted an exhibition of victims, said it had been the “singular privilege of my life to be involved (with Wave)”.

He said his Silent Testimony exhibition is an exhibition he wish he had not had to make, “because I wished that the loss that I was painting didn’t take place”.

He recalled guiding Margaret Yeaman’s hand to feel the portrait of her that she could not see, having been blinded in 1982 by a bomb in Banbridge.

“I brought Margaret up to the painting, guided her hand to touch it, allowed her to smell the drying oil and it profoundly moved me,” he said.

“I am heartened each time I meet with people from Wave.

“At the start I expected it might bring me down but it always brings me up.

“I leave on a high, not because of the suffering which is day to day, but the dedication, resilience and determination which everyone has.”