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.

This includes more than 110 police officers.

and almost the same number of prison officers. Both groups were concerned the identity and addresses of a large number of police and prison officers had become known to the IRA and possibly splinter republican groups.

The growing number of civilians forced to move house as a result of intimidation in recent years also added to the soaring cost of protection programmes. Already this year up to March, an additional 13.9m has been spent on housing another 100 families. This figure compares with a total of 50 people who were rehoused under relocation schemes in 1996.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive spent 9m on the Scheme for the Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings (SPED) in 2000-2001, despite an original target budget of just 2.8m. However, expenditure on SPED rose to almost 15m in 2001-02. Former Northern Housing Minister Nigel Dodds has criticised the size of the funding for SPED, claiming it tied up money that could be better spent in other areas.

"It's a clear waste and drain on resources which are scarce enough," said Mr Dodds.

However, a Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said that most of the cash was eventually recovered by the Exchequer through the sale of the evacuated homes.

Mr Dodds said the figures suggested there was clear evidence that terrorists still posed a threat despite the peace process.