The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has welcomed
an announcement by the Secretary of State Shaun Woodward that
he is planning to introduce new legislation to change the
Criminal Damage Order, which will make it easier for organisations
such as the Orange Order to claim compensation for malicious
damage to their property.
A spokesman for the Orange Order said;
We made our first submission to the then Secretary of State
John Reid in March 2002. We have been calling on him and subsequent
Secretaries of State to recognise that there is a problem
that can be best addressed by new legislation.
"We are delighted that the Northern Ireland
Office has finally accepted this argument and we welcome Mr
Woodward's announcement.
"We are looking forward to seeing the draft
legislation.
"This is the culmination of a six year
campaign which involved many meetings with government ministers,
the police, government agencies and the insurance industry.
We appreciate the support of MPs and the local political parties
throughout our campaign."
Since 1971, there have been 289 arson attacks on Orange Halls.
Last year there were 27 arson attacks on Orange Halls and
there have been three arson attacks in 2008.
An Orange Order delegation consisting of Deputy Grand Master
Edward Stevenson, Grand Secretary Drew Nelson and Grand Treasurer
Mervyn Bishop, accompanied by DUP MPs Peter Robinson, Nigel
Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson, met the Secretary of State at
Hillsborough Castle on Friday night.
|
