£69m bill for 'collusion' inquiry

The bill for the three inquiries stands at almost £69m

The cost of independent inquiries into alleged collusion by the security forces into three murders in Northern Ireland is almost £69m.

It is the total government bill for inquiries into the deaths of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, loyalist leader Billy Wright and Portadown man Robert Hamill.

The government and many politicians are unhappy with public inquiries costs.

BBC NI Home Affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney said the latest figure was likely to fuel that debate.

The news comes days after it was revealed that many of the 180 staff working for the Historical Enquiries Team, set up to investigate murders during the Troubles, could temporarily lose their jobs because the government has withdrawn £1.5m funding.

Up to the end of September, the inquiry into the murder of Mrs Nelson, which opened in April 2005, has cost almost £32m and could last for another 18 months.

She was killed in a loyalist booby-trap car bomb attack outside her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, on 15 March 1999.

The murder was claimed by loyalist splinter group, the Red Hand Defenders, but there have been allegations of security force collusion because of Mrs Nelson's role as solicitor for the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition and other high profile cases.

Wright inquiry

The inquiry into the killing of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright, which opened three years ago, has cost almost £19.5m and is expected to last for at least another six months.

He was shot dead by republican paramilitaries, the Irish National Liberation Army inside the Maze prison in December 1997.

There are allegations that members of the security forces knew the murder was planned but did not intervene.

The inquiry into Robert Hamill's murder will not begin hearing evidence in public until early next year, but has already cost almost £18m.

Mr Hamill, 25, was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in Portadown in 1997.

It was claimed that armed RUC officers in a Land Rover near the scene failed to intervene.