{"id":187090,"date":"2025-12-12T02:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/187090\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:07:08","slug":"northern-ireland-justice-minister-misspoke-when-saying-psni-data-breach-funding-agreed-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/187090\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland Justice Minister \u2018misspoke\u2019 when saying PSNI data-breach funding agreed \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland\u2019s Justice Minister is facing calls to apologise to police officers following a \u201cmonumental gaffe\u201d over remarks around compensation for a major Police <\/a>Service of <\/a>Northern Ireland (PSNI)<\/a> data breach.<\/p>\n

Naomi Long said on Thursday she had \u201cmisspoken\u201d when she claimed the previous day that \u00a3119 million (\u20ac135.7 million) to deal with compensation claims had been agreed by the Stormont<\/a> Executive.<\/p>\n

Liam Kelly, the chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland<\/a>, said rank-and-file officers were \u201cleft speechless and massively disappointed\u201d by her remarks.<\/p>\n

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told the Policing Board he hoped the \u201cmistake\u201d would become a \u201cpremonition\u201d.<\/p>\n

The PSNI breach<\/a> occurred in August, 2023, when a spreadsheet released as part of a freedom of information request held hidden data with the initials, surname, rank and role of all PSNI officers and staff.<\/p>\n

The information later got into the hands of dissident republicans.<\/p>\n

The PSNI accepted liability for the data breach and a test case over potential compensation has begun in the courts.<\/p>\n

The Stormont Executive had made a reserve claim to the Treasury to cover an expected \u00a3120 million compensation bill, but this was rejected.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Ms Long told The Nolan Show on BBC that the Executive had agreed to set aside \u201caround \u00a3119 million\u201d to compensate officers.<\/p>\n

However, she appeared on the show again on Thursday to say she had \u201cmisspoken\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThat was my error in saying the money was agreed by the Executive, rather than agreed by the Department of Finance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Kelly said Ms Long now \u201cneeds to make a clear apology to officers over the monumental gaffe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her latest radio interview, she acknowledged her mistake and admitted that the \u00a3119 million she said had been \u2018ringfenced\u2019 for data-breach compensation was money that was not \u2018done and dusted\u2019,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n

The mistake has \u201cangered officers\u201d, he said, adding that she built them up to expect compensation awards from April but it quickly transpired she had \u201coverstepped the mark\u201d and that the money had not been signed off by the Executive.<\/p>\n

The issue was raised at the monthly public meeting of the Policing Board, where Ulster Unionist Alan Chambers asked Mr Boutcher when he became aware that the Justice Minister\u2019s original remarks were \u201cinaccurate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The chief constable said: \u201cI was told yesterday that this information had been made public. We all make mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI am hoping it is a premonition. I am hoping that next week or before Christmas we can play the same footage perhaps. This is such an important issue around the data breach for the officers and staff of the organisation.”<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher said he does not think there should be too much focus on someone who has made a \u201cgenuine mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am pleased about is that I get a sense that the Executive, the Finance Minister, the Justice Minister, certainly this board, are all in support of getting the data-breach funding and the resolution we are seeking provided for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am delighted there is a sense of real optimism that we are coming to a good outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stormont\u2019s Finance Minister John O\u2019Dowd said on Wednesday the costs of the data-breach compensation was something the Executive would \u201chave to deal with\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland\u2019s Justice Minister is facing calls to apologise to police officers following a \u201cmonumental gaffe\u201d over remarks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[101140,61,60,43,15449],"class_list":["post-187090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-formal-process-of-engagement-with-paramilitary-groups-in-northern-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-pa2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}