The Northern Secretary has appointed a Minister for Victims to co-ordinate efforts to help those who have suffered as a result of the Troubles.
Dr Mo Mowlam was responding to a report published yesterday by the Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield.
Mr Adam Ingram, who holds the Security and Economy portfolios, will take up the new responsibility in the Northern Ireland Office. Dr Mowlam said he would "be there to understand, to listen, and to make recommendations, and to make sure that measures are implemented".
Sir Kenneth's report, entitled We Will Remember Them, recommended appointing a senior official to co-ordinate the government's approach to victims. In the longer term, there should also be an ombudsman or a standing commission, he said.
A decision on an ombudsman will not be taken until Mr Ingram consults further with various victim groups. Dr Mowlam said: "I am not avoiding the commitment to it. I just want to make sure we do it in a way that it actually responds and functions to the needs that have been put forward today. But I can guarantee that that listening ear of government will be there."
Sir Kenneth's report was unveiled at a press conference in Stormont yesterday, attended by Dr Mowlam and Mr Ingram. Many people injured or who lost relatives in the Troubles also attended.
Sir Kenneth, a former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, was asked to write the report last November and has spent the past six months meeting victims in the North, the Republic and in England.
He made a strong case for increased funding for victims and groups representing them. "Victims must, as the barest minimum, be as well served as former prisoners in terms of their rehabilitation and future employment," he said.
Responding to the report, Dr Mowlam said £4.5 million had recently been set aside to help injured RUC members. Mr Tony Blair had also announced a further £5 million for victims last week.
She saw this as "a down payment". "I hope that we will see further developments on the financial front as well as on the policy front in the months ahead."
Dr Mowlam said some of Sir Kenneth's recommendations would need further consultation. These included the question of erecting a memorial, setting up a truth and reconciliation commission and having a memorial day with church services across the North.
Other recommendations, such as a review of the criminal injuries compensation scheme, improved counselling services and a greater sensitivity to the needs of victims by the social security system, would be addressed immediately.
In 45 years of public service, he had never been asked to undertake "a task of such human sensitivity", said Sir Kenneth. The stories he had heard would burn in his memory forever.
The aspect of the Victims Commission that led to most public debate was the memorial and whom it should be dedicated to. Sir Kenneth did not regard this as "a first priority".
He said: "It may be appropriate, when hopefully some of the wounds have begun to heal, and our society has clearly moved into a new and more constructive phase."
He emphasised that whatever form it took, it should not be divisive. "We have had enough of division, as the appalling record of these deaths and injuries so emphatically shows."
Summarising his findings, he said he concluded the practical needs of victims were not adequately addressed. "It seems to me that the victims now need some credible and powerful umbrella organisation to speak for all of them, to articulate their needs and to bid for resources."
Other interest groups, such as those concerned with the welfare of prisoners, had "a stronger collective voice". Many separate agencies of the state were concerned with victims' needs and he called for "a central controlling influence".
Many groups set up to help victims had got money from Europe and elsewhere, but these sources could not offer relief indefinitely, and many of the victims' problems would be long term.
"This reality must be reflected in public expenditure power." He also called for a more effective and comprehensive counselling service.
Holding aloft a gorse branch, Sir Kenneth said it would be nice, "for once", to see some symbol everybody could wear with pride and sadness.
He thought of the gorse because the thorns were a reminder of suffering and sacrifice, while the bright blossoms spoke of "freshness, renewal and rebirth".