FIRST MINISTER the Rev Ian Paisley yesterday accused the SDLP, the Alliance Party and the Ulster Unionists of using the issue of a victims' commission to score political points.
During a heated debate on the second stage of a Bill to create a four-member commission, the DUP leader insisted that the move "will not be stopped" and attacked the parties who opposed its accelerated passage.
"I can assure this house today that the needs of victims and survivors is one of the key priorities of this government," Dr Paisley said. "This is not a second-rate thing, this is nothing to be kicked like a football to make cheap political points."
During the debate on Monday, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said there were difficulties over finding agreement on what constituted a victim. Dr Paisley also referred to this issue yesterday but said he and Mr McGuinness were determined to resolve the matter.
"There is a difference in the house upon who is a victim and that has to be dealt with and we have to face up to it and that is what we're attempting to do, not get away from it by burying our heads in the sand, Dr Paisley said.
"We must have it out in the open and we must all have our say and use the instrument of democracy to have that say," added Dr Paisley.
It is estimated that the victims' commission would cost £750,000 (€950,000) every year and that the four commissioners will each earn £65,000 (€82,000) annually.
They include former interim victims' commissioner Bertha McDougall, whose husband was killed by the INLA, as well as Patricia MacBride, whose IRA brother was killed by the SAS and whose father died 17 months after being shot by loyalists.
A total of £33 million (€41.8 million) in funding has been announced for victims.
While the SDLP lent its support to the second stage of the Bill yesterday, having opposed its accelerated passage on Monday, party leader Mark Durkan remained highly critical of the legislation.
"The people who are ignoring the victims are the people who have accelerated the Bill's passage which denies victims the right to have their say on the very issue that is about them," he said.
Alliance leader David Ford described the Bill as a grubby piece of legislation.
Mr Ford said the needs of victims "would be far better served by what was originally proposed and by what the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister were working on until December - the appointment of a single victims' commissioner who could have taken a single unified approach."
The second stage of the Bill was passed by 49 votes to 15, with the DUP, Sinn Féin and the SDLP supporting the Bill.