My Lords, in his introductory remarks the noble Lord, Lord Hain, talked about the Assembly. I say to him simply that he knows that there is one party that had three red lines before it would enter the Executive. No other party put down red lines; it was one party and one party alone. Every other party in the Northern Ireland Assembly was willing, and is willing, without red lines, to enter that Assembly and deal with the matters that the noble Lord, Lord Empey, has already mentioned. Across the Committee, many Members have expressed not only appreciation but support.
I wonder how many people in the Committee know what it is to be in the family of an innocent victim. I stand in this House not to express somebody else’s pain—although as a Minister, I, like the noble Lord, Lord Eames, went to home after home. Hundreds, even thousands, of families have experienced the anguish and pain.
Last weekend, on the evening of 12 July, I entered the home of a couple in their late 70s, both seriously ill. A boulder was thrown through their window into their bedroom on 12 July in broad daylight, and they were terrorised. Tonight they cannot sleep. In actual fact it took them back 20 years, because 20 years ago that same couple were, like a group of other Protestant families in Beatrice Villas in Bellaghy, forced out of their home by the IRA. They had to leave that home 20 years ago and now, 20 years on, with one of them in their late 70s and one 80, they are faced with that terror again.
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I think of two young people, 16 and 21, a brother and a sister, my own loved ones, who left on a journey to show an engagement ring that the young lady had got that day. She and he were blown to bits. A mother died at 43 with a broken heart. Yes, I know that pain.
I think of another home where a father was waiting for his wife to bring home some of the things that were necessary to build their house. While he was waiting, a
terrorist knocked at the door and said, “Are you Derek?”. Then they opened up their AK-47 and shot him to bits. Yes, there is agony and pain. It is real.
That is why it was vital that I found the noble Lord’s phrase,
“severely injured through no fault of their own”,
in the amendment. It would be so hurtful to think that any person who was out to act as a terrorist, taking away some other innocent life or destroying some other innocent family, could enjoy the rewards of a pension. I am delighted that the noble Lord has said that clearly, and I trust that that will be heard in Northern Ireland. I trust also that that means even the families of those terrorists do not claim that they are in this provision.
There are many innocent victims living under great hardship. It is about time—it is long overdue—that they got this reward, this pension, to help them, with many of them in their latter days.