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£5m expected for Omagh bomb fund

ADMINISTRATORS of the special fund set up to aid survivors and relatives of the Omagh bombing victims expect to make payments to up to 700 beneficiaries, it was revealed yesterday.
"Because of the sheer magnitude of numbers who have suffered, the circumstances of the atrocity and the degree of injuries, it is quite likely the requirements are far greater in human scale than from any other disaster in these islands since 1945," fund chairman Sean O'Dwyer said.
The car bombing left 29 people dead - one of them a mother expecting twins - and 370 injured. Another 2,000 people, many of them suffering mental trauma, have attended their GPs since the August 15 attack.
Yesterday Belfast Lord Mayor David Alderdice met two women who were being fitted with artificial limbs at Musgrave Hospital in Belfast.
He said: "The physical and mental trauma suffered by the people who lost limbs in the Omagh bombing may in some small way be softened by the expertise and technological advances available to them."
The fund is expected to raise in the region of £5 million and five trustees, including Mr O'Dwyer, from Londonderry, have pledged to act with maximum speed when making initial payments and to keep administration costs to a minimum.
Up to 20 volunteer advisors are to be appointed to help the fund administrators and Mr O'Dwyer said that because of financial limits, they might not be able to help the vast majority of the 2,000 people who had attended doctors, although they would like to.
Up to £2million, including £348,000 raised in a charity outing by European Ryder Cup golf star Darren Clarke has already been pledged.