The new four-member Victims' Commission for Northern Ireland should be judged on its work and not the process by which the four were appointed, the panel said yesterday.
A statement read by First Minister Ian Paisley in the Assembly yesterday confirmed the appointment by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Commissioners Designate for victims and survivors of the Troubles, as reported in The Irish Timesand other media at the weekend.
Brendan McAllister, one of the new Victims' Commissioners and director of Mediation Northern Ireland, spoke on behalf of the panel. "We hope we can all now move forward and switch the focus away from the appointment process and return where it belongs - on the victims and survivors - the people who have paid and continue to pay, the greatest price," he said.
Dr Paisley defended the decision to appoint four people, each on a salary of £65,000, when only one post was advertised, on the grounds that they would be better equipped to deal with the needs of victims and survivors.
The previous interim Victims' Commissioner Bertha McDougal, whose police reservist husband was gunned down by the INLA, is now a member of the panel. The other two members are Mike Nesbitt, former UTV news presenter and Patricia MacBride, a sister of an IRA man shot dead by the SAS.
Before the appointments can be ratified, the Assembly will have to pass legislation to establish a Victims and Survivors' Commission. Sources close to the Executive said this could take at least six months. Prior to yesterday's announcement, the Executive had allocated £33 million to victims' issues, which includes the extra £6 million announced in the final draft of the budget.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said the decision to appoint four commissioners was not because agreement on one could not be reached. "Nothing could be further from the truth. We never at any stage of our deliberation had a situation where the First Minister proposed someone and I proposed someone as an alternative."
SDLP leader Mark Durkan expressed concern that the four commissioners would be divided along sectarian lines. Mr McGuinness said he was confident they would not allow themselves to be categorised as such.
Alliance party deputy leader Naomi Long asked whether the increased funding needed for three more commissioners would take money away from frontline services. The Deputy First Minister said savings could actually be made as fewer consultants would have to be brought in.