| Culzie | Date: Thursday, 2013-05-16, 2:47 PM | Message # 1 |
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Generalissimo
Group: Administrators
Messages: 1750
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More money for ex-IRA prisoners
Ex-IRA prisoners who received European Union funding through an organisation exposed for failing to comply with company law have been granted more money.
The Northern Irish and Irish governments backed the EU’s decision to give the additional funding to Coiste Na N-Iarchimi, a UK-registered company based in Belfast whose name means "committee of ex-prisoners".Exaro, the investigative website, revealed last month that the EU gave £1.3 million to support ex-IRA prisoners through Coiste, even though the organisation was in breach of company law by failing to file accounts.
But Exaro (www.exaronews.com) has established that the EU is to give Coiste and its network of 12 ex-prisoner organisations an additional £5,250,300 for peace-keeping projects.
Lord Laird, the Ulster Unionist peer, who called for an inquiry into the initial funding, branded the decision to provide further cash a "disgrace". "The £5.25 million should not be handed over until an investigation is carried out into how Coiste and its network are being run," he said.
The additional funding was agreed in principle at a time when Coiste did not even exist officially as a company.
Of the total £5.25 million, the EU will pay more than £3.5 million, Ireland nearly £870,000, and the UK just over £835,000. Coiste alone will receive just under £700,000.
Coiste continued to breach company law for four years by failing to file accounts until Exaro contacted it in December 2011. The Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB) awarded the money to Coiste. The SEUPB gave the responsibility of ensuring that the money went to a suitable organisation to the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (CFNI), which acted as the Coiste network’s "lead partner". CFNI said "based on reviews to date" it was "satisfied with the financial arrangements".
The UK and Irish governments set up the SEUPB, which says that it is "responsible" to the European Commission, and CFNI in 1999 to implement peacekeeping programmes.
The SEUPB said in a statement that its decision was "in principle only" and needed further appraisal from the Northern Irish government. It added that when the letter of offer was issued at the end of 2012, Coiste’s status as a company had been restored.
Coiste was incorporated in 1999, and describes itself as "the umbrella organisation" for a network of republican ex-prisoners’ groups. Some leading figures at Coiste have terrorism convictions or are ex-IRA hunger-strikers.
[u][color=#0000ff]http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news....u]
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Thursday, 2013-05-16, 4:47 PM | Message # 2 |
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Colonel general
Group: Moderators
Messages: 871
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| Unbelievable but nothing surprises me anymore.
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