The news comes that the Historical Enquiries Team are running into financial problems and finding it difficult to purloin further funding from the Department of Justice. The supposedly independent entity was formed in 2005 with a remit of examing in excess of 3200 murders during the conflict. For the first 6 years of its existence they received an amount of 34 million pounds from the Northern Ireland Office. For this past two years they have received another 10 million pounds from the Department of Justice. Upon applying once again to David Ford for a handout of another 10 million pounds to see them through the next 2 years they have come up short. Ford has apparently informed Dave Cox and his merry band that any future money should come out of Matt Baggots PSNI slush fund.
So, a couple of things here. Of the 44 million pounds spent to date how can that be accounted for. No doubt a huge percentage of it will be paid out in salaries. Can thos independent, mostly retired police officers from around the UK honestly say they have earned their corn? And better still–for such a huge outlay are the “victims” getting value for money? Add these amounts to all the costly inquiries in recent years and you will find that the tax payer is footing hefty bills for little or no return. Dave Cox goes to great lengths to tell us how independent the HET is and that it has to be so because the majority of victims refuse to have the PSNI investigate old deaths because of their past history. Doesnt sound very independent to me when they have to get the begging bowl out to any Tom, Dick and Harry every couple of years.
And as far as being non discriminatory in looking at Cold Cases from ” The Troubles” this is also a falsehood. Not only are Loyalists being targeted more than Republicans..despite the ratio of killings attributed to both during the conflict–it is blatantly obvious that part of thr remit of the HET is to stay away from the gates of Stormont when investigating old murders. I thought that would have been a good starting point.
