'I feel unable to deal with the unfairness of treatment I have faced'
Noel McAdam, Belfast Telegraph, August 19th, 2024
THREE PEOPLE DENIED THE TROUBLES PERMANENT DISABLEMENT PAYMENT SHARE THEIR FRUSTRATIONS
Three people who have been denied the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme have spoken of their frustrations at how the scheme has been handled.
Bobby Campbell
Bobby Campbell wasn't there when his brother Norman was shot dead by an IRA bullet as he closed a security barrier. And that is why Bobby was refused any compensation from the Troubles Disablement Scheme — a decision he criticises as “annoying and unjust”.
Norman, an RUC Constable, was 19 when he died shutting a traffic barrier in 1976. Bobby is now 77. He believes his own bad health and that of others in the family is a direct result of Norman's death.
“It was a morning just over a week before Christmas my skipper came into my cabin to tell me that my brother Norman had been shot dead at Portadown police barracks,” said Bobby. “We had been preparing to come home for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“One of the decisions my TPDPS appeal had been turned down on was that I was adjudged not to have been present at the time of the incident. I find this very annoying and unjust.” Bobby remembers: “I travelled from Plymouth to Heathrow, a four-hour journey on a train and then a flight to Belfast arriving at 10pm at night.
“Two RUC constables were waiting to take me home to Kilkeel. When I got home at midnight I asked to see the remains, my minister arrived just then and I told him I was 16 hours trying to get home.
“It was heartbreaking for me as I was the eldest of four girls and four boys. After all this sorrow and torment I began to drink very heavily.
“I was hospitalised twice in Downpatrick Alcoholic Unit in 1981 and 1982. Thankfully with a lot of help from family and friends, I haven't had a drink since July 18, 1984.
“I have lost three of my younger sisters at the age of 66 years with cancer and now I have cancer myself at 77 years. I also have been diagnosed with COPD and life is getting tougher.
“We are managing to get by but some financial acknowledgement could've made things more comfortable and given us additional security.
“I still miss Norman every day of my life and I think all this bad health in our family is a direct consequence of Norman's death.”
Mark Tipper
Mark Tipper feels his very integrity has been called into question after being turned down for the scheme. His brother Simon Tipper who was one of four soldiers murdered in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing by the IRA.
Having been through “endless counselling” but finding the payments scheme “out of reach”, he is appealing directly to new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “to take an interest in people like me”.
“From our first day at the Old Bailey we as families have had to fight tooth and nail for justice,” he said. “We had to deal with the on-the-run letters, then followed the inquiry by Justice Hallett, another inquiry by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee — but to what end?
“The Hyde Park families got a form of justice through the civil courts when John Downey was found liable for the atrocity but there is no muscle to force him to hand over his financial estate despite the ruling against him. Again innocents are treated with contempt.
“I have been through endless counselling to try to help bring me to a different place but it hasn't worked, I feel unable to deal with the unfairness of treatment that I and others have faced.”
Mark argued that the families of those killed or injured in the Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings never received a statement from any Prime Minister apologising for a “litany of failures in mishandling justice”.
“Now this supposed pension scheme for victims/survivors is also out of reach to me,” he added. “I've been judged by individuals not to meet the criteria of a scheme and I feel that they have questioned the integrity of my experience and my character.”
Edward O'Neill
Edward O'Neill was caught in the UVF Dublin bombing along with his brother and father.
Their father, Edward John O'Neill, a 39-year-old painter and decorator, was killed, while young Edward and his brother were seriously injured.
But his brother is eligible for the scheme, while he is not — because he lives in Dublin.
Edward says he and his brother were “nearly murdered” in the May 1974 attack in which their father was among 33 people killed that day.
“The TPDS was supposedly the vehicle in which all our injuries would be acknowledged and some form of compensation paid to us,” he said. “Remarkably I was refused the TPDS on one single point, in that I am not a UK citizen.
“I have been receiving assistance from the UK taxpayer in the form of help from the Victims and Survivors Service in Belfast who have been nothing short of remarkable. They acknowledge the extent of my injuries and the trauma I suffered and that the incident... was a terrorist-related incident.
“However, here is where the absolute unfairness and bizarre nature of the scheme becomes self-evident.
“My brother who was born in Birmingham and who holds a UK passport is electively eligible for the pension while I am not.
“Injured in the same incident at the same time and date, while I am not eligible because I am born in Dublin and my brother born in Birmingham is. It is a hugely bitter pill to swallow.”
UK Government says it is up to Stormont to compensate the relatives of Troubles victims
The UK Government has said it is up to Stormont to decide on expanding compensation to include relatives of Troubles victims.
The victims campaign group Wave is sending a report to Secretary of State Hilary Benn on the long-delayed issue of spouses, partners and carers of victims being left in limbo. Westminster set up the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme (TPDPS) in 2020 in the absence of the Assembly.
It is open to those who have been permanently physically or psychologically disabled as a result of an injury related to the Troubles.
However, many relatives of people killed and injured during the Troubles have been turned down. They include a man whose brother receives payments as a UK resident — while he is denied because he was born in Dublin.
Another man whose brother was killed in the Hyde Park bombing has also been denied, as well as the brother of an RUC man who was denied payments because he was not present at the death.
A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: “We recognise the terrible pain experienced by those who were bereaved through Troubles-related incidents and the impact their loss continues to have.
“The Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme was established by the UK Government in the absence of an Executive in 2020, and is specifically intended to acknowledge permanently injured victims.
“Support for victims is a devolved matter, and it is right that the Executive considers how best to acknowledge and support people who have lost loved ones during the Troubles.”
Kenny Donaldson from the victims group the South East Fermanagh Foundation, which includes membership in the Republic, Great Britain and Europe, hit back at the NIO.
“TPDPS as provided for in law was never going to be the answer for the overwhelming majority of the bereaved,” he said. “There was and is a need for a new scheme to be developed and we do not see this scheme being possible with our politics in NI, it will require to be administered for nationally.
“The pathway through it is for the establishment of a separate reparation scheme.”
Wave CEO Sandra Peake said: “We remain of the view that a scheme focused on degrees of disablement is not appropriate for many of those bereaved and, of course, the question of proximity to the incident means many, particularly women, are ruled as ineligible which causes hurt and compounds the trauma.
“This question of proximity in some cases has split families.
“We have a paper which is being updated and will be forwarded to the SoS who has indicated he would like to consider this issue. We will be making the case for the bereaved to be recognised as a matter of urgency.
“In terms of the bereaved, this scheme was never designed or intended to cover their experience.
“The title of the scheme refers to 'disablement'. Claimants are assessed on degrees of disablement either physical or psychological or both plotted on a scale between 20% and 100%.
“Frankly it is invidious to apply that to the bereaved. There will be limited circumstances in which someone who was bereaved will be eligible to apply to the scheme; for example, if they were present at the death of their loved one.”
The Executive Office said: “We will ensure that these are included in the development of a new Victims Strategy for consideration by ministers.”
Stormont and the UK Government were at loggerheads for years over how the scheme aimed at disablement should be funded, with estimated costs over the next 20 to 30 years potentially topping £1.2bn.
But the stand-off came to an end when in a landmark ruling the Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said there was a legal duty on the Executive Office regarding the funding.
