Ex-paramilitary prisoners may get legal protection

FORMER paramilitary prisoners could be offered greater protection from discrimination under the North’s single Equality Bill.

The British government asked various interest groups, in a 196-page consultation paper, whether there should be specific protections for former IRA, other republican and loyalist prisoners from discrimination and inequality.

The document, launched yesterday by Northern Ireland Office minister John Spellar at Stormont, also asked whether victims of the Troubles, pregnant women and mothers, Irish language, Ulster Scots and non-English speakers should also be specifically identified in the bill.