IAN PAISLEY and Martin McGuinness broke no laws by deciding to appoint four victims commissioners in Northern Ireland, the High Court in Belfast has ruled.
A judge has also dismissed claims that the former first minister and current Deputy First Minister identified candidates on the basis of religious beliefs or political opinion rather than merit.
The verdict represents a defeat for the daughter of IRA murder victims who was seeking to have the commissioner appointments quashed. Michelle Williamson, whose parents were killed in the 1993 bomb attack on Belfast’s Shankill Road, claimed there was no legal authority to bring four people into the role.
It was originally planned to have a single commissioner on a £65,000-a-year salary to represent those bereaved during 35 years of conflict. After the original process was ditched, however, it was announced in January 2008 that Patricia MacBride, whose brother was an IRA volunteer killed on active service, RUC widow Bertha McDougal, former broadcaster Mike Nesbitt and Brendan McAllister, director of Mediation Northern Ireland, would each be taking up the post.
During a judicial review hearing, Ms Williamson’s legal team said no records had been kept to explain how Dr Paisley and Mr McGuinness came to their decision.
Dismissing the application, Mr Justice Gillen declared that the Ministers did have legal authority to decline to appoint a single commissioner.
The judge added that “bold assertions” that the former first minister and Deputy First Minister both lied to and misled the Northern Ireland Assembly “fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the new constitutional arrangements and the joint decision-making process that courses through the provisions of the Good Friday agreement and the Northern Ireland Act 1998”.
Mr Justice Gillen said the concepts of a joint entity and the joint powersharing were the linchpins of the new dispensation and the intent of the legislation.
“It will be singularly unhelpful, and in my view constitutionally inapposite, for the courts to prescribe methods as to the manner of securing this unity of decision- making absent clear evidence of unlawful acts or breach of public law by the participants,” he said.
“The courts must be wary to frustrate neither the legislative intent nor the public interest in ensuring that the new constitutional arrangements are given an opportunity to succeed.”
He told the court no evidence had been found to sustain the argument that the protracted delay, before the Ministers announced their view that legislation for a joint commission rather than a single commissioner should be introduced, smacked of improper consideration, discrimination or political manoeuvrings.
Dismissing the claims as pure speculation, the judge said: “Whilst there were no minutes of the meetings between the first minister and Deputy First Minister, the wealth of discovery made on all other aspects betrayed not a scintilla of evidence to substantiate submissions in this regard.”
Ms Williamson’s legal representatives said they were studying the ruling with a view to a possible appeal.