from Ireland on Sunday, 4 March

Worry by Tory over taxpayers' cash, how are you!

by Paul O'Connor, Pat Finucane Centre

EVER HEARD tell of the Conservative MP, Gerald Howarth? The aforementioned member of the British House of Commons has shown a keen interest in the Bloody Sunday Tribunal.

To be exact, he has shown a keen interest in the costs of the inquiry. In reply to a parliamentary question, the honourable gentleman was informed that the inquiry had cost over £33m up until December 31, 2000. Hmm, tut tut.

Willie Ross, unionist MP for East Derry, has also tabled parliamentary questions requesting breakdowns of the amounts paid to solicitors, barristers, salaries of staff etc.

It would be an understatement to suggest that the above elected representatives were not best pleased that the inquiry was even established. They are not best pleased that it continues. The reader may be certain of one thing. Each time the costs are questioned, there is a direct correlation between those raising the issue and opposition to the inquiry itself.

It would be like Charles Haughey expressing concern at the costs of the Moriarty tribunal. Understandable, perhaps, but hardly motivated by sympathy for the taxpayer.

Are the families of the dead and injured responsible for the costs? The people of Derry maybe? Those who campaigned for repudiation of Widgery, the original inquiry? Or even the ghosts of the dead themselves? Of course not.

Fourteen men and boys were murdered on the streets of Derry on January 30 1972. Attempts were made to murder many more. Those in power sought to cover up the events of the day and portray the victims are perpetrators.

So who was in power in January 1972? The Ulster Unionist Party of Willie Ross ruled the roost at Stormont. Senior members of the party attended security meetings in the days leading up to the massacre.

In Westminster Gerald Howarth's party, the Conservatives, called the shots, literally. The Ministry of Defence played a central role in the subsequent cover-up.

Here is a parliamentary question that Gerald Howarth might put: "To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland: A. How much a tribunal of inquiry might have cost had the Conservative Government in 1972 held a proper inquiry; B. How much the costs of the present inquiry have increased because of attempts by the MoD to withhold and destroy evidence, delay proceedings, demand anonymity for individual soldiers and move part of the inquiry to London ?

Of course if the real issue is genuine concern at the costs as opposed to a political agenda regarding Bloody Sunday, this begs an obvious question. What is the attitude of those sniping at the tribunal to other examples of massive expenditure by government?

Take Drumcree for example. Over a three-year period up until 2000, the policing bill alone topped £28 million. This does not include additional costs such as compensation payments for criminal damage.

The Housing Executive faced a four-year bill of over £27.5 million assisting families intimidated out of their homes. Willie Ross, as a member of the Orange Order, must surely be doing all in his power to cut the policing bill associated with the demand by his organisation to parade through a Catholic area of Portadown.

Has he asked any parliamentary questions on the issue? The taxpayer might also want to know why the MoD has spent £28,000 in behind-the-scenes court battles to prevent one British newspaper from printing damaging details about the army's force research unit, responsible for the murder of Pat Finucane.

The Treasury Solicitors Department ran up a massive legal bill fighting the same case. This is not money spent in an attempt to uncover the truth, as is the case with the Bloody Sunday tribunal.

It is, instead, a scandalous misuse of taxpayers' money aimed at covering up the involvement of government employees in a murder campaign. Sounds familiar doesn't it - echoes of Widgery?

We all have our own agenda. I believe the costs of Drumcree are scandalous because I disagree with the alleged right of the Orange Order to parade on the Garvaghy Road. Does Gerald Howarth MP have an agenda ? Who knows? By the way, he is the MP for Aldershot, headquarters of the Parachute Regiment.