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Minister hopeful for £1.3m of extra funds for Troubles victims

Sinn Fein junior Minister Jennifer McCann Expand

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Sinn Fein junior Minister Jennifer McCann

Sinn Fein junior Minister Jennifer McCann

Sinn Fein junior Minister Jennifer McCann

By David Young

A Stormont minister has expressed confidence that a bid for an extra £1.3 million of funding for a service for Troubles victims and survivors will be approved during the next round of budget negotiations.

Junior minister Jennifer McCann told MLAs that the Office the First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) placed the needs of those affected by the conflict as a high priority.

Ms McCann was questioned in the Assembly by Alliance's Kieran McCarthy about the impact being felt by the Victims and Survivors Service (VSS) as a consequence of Stormont's multimillion-pound budget crisis.

Last week it emerged that the service had written to around 3,000 victims and survivors informing them that financial support was being reduced or deferred due to the financial situation.

While the Executive is struggling to absorb £220m of spending cuts in the next six months, the Sinn Fein junior minister said she hoped an extra £1.3m could be secured for the VSS in the forthcoming quarterly monitoring round negotiations.

"We fully acknowledge that the needs of victims and survivors have to be given high priority, and we will continue to work to ensure that they are," said Ms McCann.

"We are committed to ensuring that the victims and survivors' budget is protected, and, to that end, we have a bid for £1.3m in additional funding in October monitoring.

"We have raised the issue directly with the Minister of Finance (Simon Hamilton) and are confident that the budget will be protected at the same baseline – £11.3m – as in the previous financial year," she said.

Belfast Telegraph

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