New fund for victims of terrorism

A special fund to help victims of terrorist violence was one of more than 30 proposals revealed tonight by Northern Ireland Finance Minister Mark Durkan.

The Minister announced the move as part of a £39m boost for public services from the cross-departmental Executive Programme Funds.

Other sectors to benefit from the extra cash will be health, community regeneration, education, equality promotion and sport.

‘‘The allocations announced today provide further evidence of the way in which the devolved administration is beginning to work in new and distinctive ways,’’ he said.

He said the new Victims Fund would match money being provided by the NIO in support of the strategy to help those directly affected by the Troubles.

Mr Durkan said the time was now right to assess the effectiveness of the Executive Programme Funds, set up to target areas of need in a cross-departmental basis.

‘‘We have concluded it would be sensible to take stock and complete a short review of the arrangements we have put in place to ensure we deliver our priorities.’’

Under the health allocation, the Fire and Ambulance services will receive a new digital radio system to enable an integrated response to emergencies.

In education, there will be new equipment to help children with severe and learning and physical disabilities.

The funds will also be used to take forward the new Soccer Strategy recently announced by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.