Cost of North protection scheme soars

THE cost of providing safe houses for people facing death threats from Northern paramilitaries has sent the cost of protection schemes operated by the British authorities spiralling.

Figures released yesterday show the budget for such programmes rose to €45.9m last year an increase of about 300%.

More than 6,500 people in the North have been forced to leave their homes due to intimidation in the past four years. The sharp rise in expenditure on emergency house purchases is largely attributable to material containing confidential data on security personnel falling into the hands of the IRA. Security forces decided to rehouse hundreds of police officers and prison officers following a break-in at the high-security Castlereagh centre as and the recovery of alleged IRA intelligence files in Belfast. It is understood about 300 members of the security forces and their families were rehoused last year.