Bill for Northern Ireland inquiries will pass £300m
The final cost of four inquiries into Northern Ireland’s Troubles will surpass £300 million, the Government revealed today.
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, set up to re-examine the 1972 killings of 14 Catholic civilians by soldiers during a civil rights march in Londonderry, is expected to cost around £190 million, Shaun Woodward, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said.
A further three inquiries, also established under the peace process during negotiations over power-sharing, are estimated to have cost £117 million.
The total bill for an exercise that has been heavily criticised by Unionists is expected to come in at £307 million.
Mr Woodward rejected suggestions by MPs that the Government had frittered away money on the inquiries.
The Government is studying proposals to deal with the legacy of the province’s’s bloody past which would cost another £300 million to implement.
The most controversial proposal, to pay £12,000 to the relatives of every person killed in the Troubles, regardless of whether they were innocent civilians, security force members or members of paramilitary groups, has already been put to one side after meeting public opposition.
Lord Saville of Newdigate has been criticised for the time he is taking in writing his Bloody Sunday report, which is not expected to be delivered before the autumn.
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry was established in 1998 and heard its last witness in 2005.
