Victims appointments 'remain a dog's breakfast' - Ford

8.00.00am GMT Fri 22nd Feb 2008

Alliance Party Leader David Ford has said confirmation that the Victims' Commissioners are still not legally in post provides further evidence that their appointment is a 'dog's breakfast'.

Speaking after one of the Commissioners-Designate Mike Nesbitt acknowledged the Commissioners still had no legal authority, David Ford stated: 'The decision to appoint four Commissioners was unnecessary and unsound. Now we see that, instead of having one Commissioner in post and working with legal authority, we have none at all!

'I have no doubt that Mike Nesbitt or any of his three fellow appointees would do a fine job. However, the fact is that the Executive's shambolic approach to this issue means that now no one is doing that job.

'What we wanted to see was a Commissioner in place getting on with the work. We also wished to see increased funding set aside for victims, not bureaucrats. The Executive has now lost control of the issue completely.

'If this is evidence of how the Executive plans to treat the whole issue of dealing with the past, it is cause for serious concern.'