TC/1296

Minister gives £2.3M festive gift to Omagh

Return visit brings message of hope
OMAGH received a message of hope this week from the Health and Education Minister, Mr John McFall, when he announced a £2.3 million funding boost to assist with the provision of care in the aftermath of the August bombing.
Mr. McFall, who came to Omagh on the day of the bombing, revisited the town on Monday in support of the 'Give a Day to Omagh' campaign.
And in addition to completing the Christmas shopping, the Minister brought a special gift to the town, with the announcement that an additional £2 million had been earmarked for health and social services, and £300,000 for education.
He said much more work still needed to be done, and he pledged his full support to the town, pointing out that he would be back.
The Trust and the Western Health and Social Services Board recently put in a bid to the Department of Health and Social Services seeking to recoup the costs of the bombing.
The Board has claimed that at least an extra £6.5 million will be needed over the next four years to provide care and services as a result of the atrocity.
Speaking at the Trauma Centre established by the Sperrin Lakeland Trust in the aftermath of the bomb, Mr McFall said he had been very impressed by the positive and comprehensive manner in which the Trust and the Western Board had addressed the complex issue.
'Imaginative'
Describing the schemes developed by the Trust to assist and support victims, relatives and Trust staff as "imaginative", he said: "It is only when one sees these detailed plans that the long-term effects of such events are forcibly driven home.
He said that the extra £3 million for the health services would be channelled into the Trauma Centre and relevant activities, in order to help the victims, the families of the bereaved, and the community in general.
"Unless the additional funding were made available, it is inevitable that other, deserving patients would remain longer on waiting lists and that the delivery of community services would be restricted," he said.
He went on: "The Trauma Centre away from the glare of the media, is dealing with individual people's lives. Many people are suffering, and, I have been made very much aware of that during my visit today."
Commenting on the £300,000 for education, he referred to the arrangements which had been made by the Western Education and Library Board to deploy crisis management teams and to employ home tutors for the victims of the bomb.
And he added: "There is an awful lot of work to do yet and this will not be my last visit here."
The Minister was met at the Trauma Centre by Mr. Michael Duffy, senior social worker with the unit, and Mr. David Bolton, director of community care in the Trust.
They introduced Mr. McFall to members of the trauma team who work daily with all sectors of the community, providing various types of counselling services.