GERRY Adams will be blocked from claiming taxpayer-funded compensation under changes to the law today.
The former Sinn Féin leader was on track to receive a government payout for his detention in the 1970s.
PAFormer Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams will be blocked from claiming taxpayer-funded compensation under changes to the law today[/caption]
But a new Troubles Bill will now ban him and around 400 other largely republican former-detainees from receiving public cash.
It comes after an unexpected Supreme Court ruling in 2020 on historical detentions in Northern Ireland risked forcing ministers to splurge vast sums of money on individuals who claimed they were wrongfully detained during the Troubles.
The landmark case, brought by Adams, found his initial detention under an Interim Custody Order (ICO) was unlawful because a junior minister signed the order, not the Secretary of State.
This pivotal decision opened the floodgates for thousands of compensation claims for imprisonment and quashed convictions.
Later, Mr. Adams won a court battle in 2023 that ruled he was wrongly denied compensation after his convictions for trying to escape jail in the 1970s were quashed.
Today, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn will introduce new legislation to Parliament to clarify that the relevant law always permitted junior ministers to sign the ICOs and, therefore, ensure no compensation will be paid.
A government source told The Sun: “The last government completely failed to successfully address this issue.
“Today we are making it clear in the law that detentions were legitimate and lawful.
“A result of this will be that those previously eligible will not get a single penny of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash.”
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