Support for up to 120,000 victims of the Troubles is patchy, unco-ordinated and inconsistently funded, a report has warned.
Victims Commissioner Bertha McDougall was appointed last October by Northern Secretary Peter Hain, who said at the time that "more needs to be done to recognise all the pain and hurt" of victims. Ms McDougall states in her first interim report that there is no coherent long-term plan to help all victims across Northern Ireland. Although there were examples of good practice to be found, she reported there was little consistency and insufficient security of funding to maintain good service. Funding was on a hand-to-mouth basis.
Ms McDougall, whose RUC reservist husband was shot dead by the INLA 25 years ago, said some services were not available in parts of the North, while they were duplicated elsewhere.
With funding of £36.4 million (€53.5 million) from the British government and a further £7.6 million (€11.1 million) from the EU's "peace" funds now coming to an end, there was a clear need, she said, of a service that is "adequately funded, resourced and strategically planned" and sustainable.
"Current funding arrangements allow for one-off grants and group support. However, greater flexibility could benefit individuals," she reported.
"An individual should, as a matter of course, be able to receive appropriate treatments for physical injuries and know that the treatments will change or be adapted as the injury lessens or to meet their changing need.
"An individual should be able to receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and have access to ongoing support as required," she added.
Current provision was commendable in areas, she found, but some services suffered from "no agreed direction, nor with any overarching aims and objectives within which all bodies know their role, who they are accountable to and what they are ultimately trying to achieve".
Victims Minister David Hanson welcomed the report.
"We do have a significant amount of European money that has been coming into Northern Ireland - not just to support victims - but to support a range of initiatives throughout Northern Ireland, which is now drying up and needs to be managed and challenged for the future," he said.
"We in government are taking the issue very seriously - we are looking to what we can do in the long-term, to help support a wider victims' strategy."
SDLP Assembly member Patricia Lewsley said the commissioner was "absolutely right".
Ms Lewsley said she knew of a man "who was shot and seriously wounded in 1970 and received less than £500". Accusing the Northern Ireland Office of bad faith over caring for victims, she added: "The government hasn't honoured the promise made to victims in the Good Friday agreement.
"Often the services for them are inadequate and, as the scandal over the "On The Runs" legislation shows, government has been happy to leave victims out in the cold, voiceless and ignored, while it attends to the needs of the perpetrators and their spokespersons."