The peace process is a very strange thing indeed. On the one hand the unionist community is urged to forget and forgive the wrongs against them and on the other hand the republican community are allowed, and encouraged, to constantly dredge up the past. It has been said that the unionist community are stuck in the past, celebrating long forgotten events involving historical figures now peripheral to our modern world, yet it is equally true that for members of the republican community it will be forever 1969. The Bloody Sunday inquiry is but one more example of the groove in which the republican community are stuck but there is a much more serious issue: the Bloody Sunday inquiry has turned into little better than a feeding frenzy with a whole host of parasites feeding off the tax payer. The Bloody Sunday has two main functions: it provides propaganda for Sinn Fein by constantly recalling this one particular incident and it provides the legal profession with a real money-spinner.
The amounts of money involved in this farcical inquiry, revising history to suit the terrorist in much the same way as the dictator has the history books rewritten upon coming to power, have become obscene. Here are some of the shocking statistics demonstrating exactly how the taxpayers money is being spent:
· Barristers representing the killed and wounded have been paid more than £3.7 million while solicitors have been paid more than £6 million.
· The bill for the lawyers representing the soldiers present on Bloody Sunday is estimated to be as high as £13 million.
· Leading barristers who appear before the inquiry can earn a massive £2,100 for a days work. More than most people earn in two months.
· The information technology involved in the inquiry has cost over £13 million.
· Providing accommodation for those attending the inquiry has cost so far nearly £4 million.
· Chairman Lord Saville earns £157,699 a year and also claims a £50 allowance for everyday spent in Londonderry where the inquiry is being held. When in London Lord Saville and his assistants are provided with free accommodation. A travel allowance of £250 for every hour spent in traveling to the inquiry is also claimed.
The projected end cost for the Bloody Sunday inquiry will be a staggering £200 million and may even go above this estimate. This blatant misuse of public funds should be set against the backdrop of the Northern Ireland healthcare system which, since the great devolution experiment has become the worst healthcare system in any region of the UK. The projected bill of £200 million, all courtesy of the British taxpayer, could have been spent as follows:
· Over 11,000 trained nurses
· Over 3000 hospital consultants
· Over 6000 junior doctors
· Three new hospitals
· 20 new secondary schools
· 40 million new books for school libraries
It is hard to understand how the expenditure of public funds involved in the Bloody Sunday inquiry can be justified. It is even more galling when set against the backdrop of the worst healthcare system in the UK and the good that the money could have been put to in addressing this state of affairs.
Whilst people are suffering in the here and now because of the state of our healthcare system we have allowed our government to spend over £200 million to find out who fired the first shot in an incident, one amongst many in the history of the troubles, that happened some 30 years ago. And when the inquiry has concluded and its findings are made public does anyone seriously believe that it will satisfy republicans? And what then, do we have yet another one! It is time to bring to an end to the Bloody Sunday inquiry and the twin track approach within the peace process: you cannot ignore and push aside the legitimate grievances of one section of the community telling them to forget and forgive yet at the same time facilitate the constant opening up of old grievances on the other. Either there is equality within the approach or there is a new approach, one that seeks to assist the whole of society to slowly forget the past and which allows the republican community to come to terms with the world having moved on from 1969. A forlorn hope.
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