Government was lobbied in 1998 to do more for ex-prisoners, records show
Hundreds of prisoners were released from jail as part of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
The government was lobbied to do more to assist former paramilitaries to get jobs and integrate back into society months after being released from prison in 1998.
Declassified files show the then Northern Ireland Office minister, Adam Ingram, resisting the pressure by stating society was “not yet at the stage where all of the shutters could go up”, expressing concerns that ex-prisoners could end up teaching the children of their victims.
The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 largely ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland and led to the establishment of the Stormont powersharing Assembly.
The deal also saw the release from prison of hundreds of paramilitary prisoners.
Among those who attended the meeting for Projex 2000 were John White of the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), Brendan Mackin of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), businessman Ken Cleland and Paul Mageean of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ).
A minute of the meeting shows that the minister advised the group to start lobbying the local parties in the Assembly as he said much of the responsibility for what they were concerned about would fall to Stormont.
Mr Cleland says the government had committed to providing assistance for politically motivated prisoners in the Good Friday Agreement, but there had been “no tangible signs of this apart from the prisoner releases”.
“There was already a huge reaction in society to the prisoner release programme.”
The group raised concerns about the exclusion of former political prisoners from compensation schemes and highlighted difficulties in finding employment, suggesting a partnership between the prisoner groups, the government and the private sector.
The minute states: “John White interjected to say that the prisoner groups were also concerned about media reporting that prisoners were getting huge sums of money on leaving prison.”
It continues: “Mr Mackin said the reality at present is that prisoners’ groups do not see anything tangible coming from the Good Friday Agreement.
“It seemed to him to be a complete waste of resources for prisoners to come out of prison highly educated but unable to get jobs.”
The minister responded that the government had “taken a lot of gambles with no payback”.
The minute continues: “As an after-thought he (Mr McCleland) added that it was ironic that someone like David Ervine may end up as a Minister in the New Assembly yet would be unable to employ civil service staff who were politically motivated ex-prisoners.
“Again, the Minister emphasised that we are not yet at the stage where all of the shutters could go up.
“There were legitimate concerns that ex-prisoners could end up for instance teaching the children of their victim.”
It says Mr Mageean said it was “ironic that the Government had signed up to the release of several hundred prisoners but yet would not allow them to get a job in somewhere like a passport office”.
It continues: “The Minister reminded him that a sizeable part of the Northern Ireland community are not signed up to the (Good Friday Agreement), we have to move carefully; there is a much wider issue here.”
As an action point after the meeting, the minister said he would write to all political parties in the Assembly to ask them to nominate someone to deal with the issue of prisoner re-integration.
