Mr. Dennis Godfrey:

We met the Secretary of State in July when his mind was, as members can imagine, on the broader politics. This is where the whole thing tends to get run into the ground. There is an attitude of, "If they won't do it at the minute, then I can't do it." That causes a difficulty.

One issue to which Ms Peake referred that is doable and resolvable, because we are talking about a finite number of people, concerns provision for those severely injured during the conflict. I refer to the very top category of injuries, which would include bilateral amputees, paraplegics, the blind and so on. We have one such young man of 42 but most of these people are in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Most were unable to build up an occupational pension and now fund themselves by living on benefits. One such person is Jennifer, who was 21 when she lost both her legs in a no-warning bomb attack. Peter was 26 when, in a case of mistaken identity, he was shot by a loyalist gang. The configuration of his flat meant that the ambulance crew could not get him down on a stretcher and had instead to take him out in a body bag. As he came out, his father arrived at the building, assumed his son was dead and had a heart attack and died at the scene. Margaret was rendered instantly blind when the bomb which detonated outside her office blew the window panes in on top of her. She has spent years undergoing very painful reconstructive surgery to have glass removed from her mouth. If I recall correctly, that incident occurred in 1985 and, even today, glass that was embedded in the deep muscle tissue still sometimes comes through her skin. Her husband occasionally has to warn her that she needs to change her clothes before visitors arrive because her thighs and arms are pockmarked with blood. These are the people we at WAVE are representing. Paul, who is our youngest victim, was 21 when a loyalist gang entered his home to wait for his next door neighbour to return. When the neighbour did not show up, the gang members emptied a machine gun magazine into Paul. He was left having to use a wheelchair and, this year, he lost a kidney as a direct consequence of his injuries. His suffering is ongoing.

These people are not asking for very much. The quantum would be some €3 million per year, which is not a huge amount of money. We have lobbied and met all the parties, including Sinn Féin, the DUP and Traditional Unionist Voice, on more than one occasion, and they are always good meetings. In fact, it is essentially the same meeting each time because everybody agrees that these people deserve something.

Virtually everywhere in the world where conflict has been resolved, the work has been done by these guys, mostly commissioned through WAVE and Queen's University. We have done research in Colombia and Spain. We keep running into the issue of eligibility. They reckon of the 500 there are ten, six loyalists and four republicans, who it could be said were injured by their own hand, in other words, by a premature bomb explosion or whatever. Therein lies the impasse. Sinn Féin takes the position that everyone should have access to this because it is a matter of need. The DUP, unionists generally and the Government say that people injured by their own hand will not get it. That is where we are and have been. The 490 others, Paul, Peter, Margaret, Jennifer, Alec, Mark and various others, have to wait.

WAVE is saying that it would be unfair to put it on victims to be the arbiters of who should get this. They say they need it. They are not saying who should not get it, they are saying they should. If there is an argument and discussion about others, that is not for them to have, that is a political, moral argument. We are arguing, although it is outside the remit of this committee, that pressure should be put on. Fundamentally, this is a legacy issue.

The processing of a pension would be devolved of course but this is essentially a legacy issue. We have argued with the Secretary of State that at the end of the day the British Government has overarching responsibility for legacy. If the local administration cannot agree on it then it has to be done effectively at Westminster. We are saying that the people who have been injured through no fault of their own should get it tomorrow. If there is an issue there must be a way of getting process, whether that is a review process to consider cases in the round, and we are talking about a relatively small number. Since the group was set up in 2011, four have died. These are people who were injured during the 1970s and 1980s. Their average age would be in the 60s, some are in their 70s, although Paul is 42. We get a lot of sympathy but we would like if any influence can be brought to bear in any quarter to see some resolution for these people because they are all getting older. As people get older with those kinds of injuries, the pain is compounded each year and mobility becomes more difficult. All they want is a bit of dignity as they get older, not a huge sum of money.