Restorative Justice Schemes operating in loyalist neighbourhoods in Northern Ireland are suffering financially because they are being tarred by concerns about similar programmes in republican areas, a House of Commons Committee was told today.
Tom Winston, the manager of Northern Ireland Alternatives, which runs four schemes in Belfast and Bangor, insisted there was a big difference between the programmes his organisation runs and those operated by Community Restorative Justice Ireland in nationalist neighbourhoods.
"Restorative justice has been heavily politicised over the last few years," he told the committee of MPs during an evidence session in Belfast.
"A lot of it is edged towards CRJI. There has not been enough of a distinction drawn between what we do and what they do.
"It is like a bowl of fruit, it is like apples and oranges. The difficulty is many people are putting restorative justice into one camp."
Restorative justice brings the perpetrators of low level crime face-to-face with their victims to agree on an appropriate penalty and to try and understand why they did what they did.
Supporters of the schemes, including Sinn Fein, claim they are a viable alternative to so-called punishment attacks and expulsions by paramilitary organisations.
Critics of the schemes, including the Ulster Unionists, the Democratic Unionists and particularly the nationalist SDLP, have warned they could be exploited and have been exploited by republicans to exert control over their communities and to act as an alternative police service.
Debbie Watters, a trainer with Northern Ireland Alternatives, told the committee that the debate in recent years over restorative justice had deterred some potential funders and organisations from working with them.
"The debate that has been raging on community based restorative justice has been really rigorous and has affected people's opinion of restorative justice," she said.
"In Northern Ireland, a lot of people are very afraid to come near us. People who two or three years ago wanted a relationship with us won't do it because of the way the debate has escalated.
"I think the SDLP have escalated this debate to a level there does not need to be." Ms Watters said her organisation, which is based in the loyalist Shankill area, was producing great savings for the criminal justice system and differed from the schemes in the nationalist areas because police served on the board."