Lord Justice Weir, the presiding judge of the Coroners’ Service, has blamed the UK and Northern Ireland governments for failing to fund agencies involved in disclosure work.

The senior judge, undertaking a two-week review into 56 legacy cases, made his most forceful intervention yet during a hearing related to the inquest into the shooting of Terence McDaid by loyalist paramilitaries.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that barrister Mark Robinson, representing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and PSNI, told the court that the ongoing work on redacting and disclosing classified material could not be done on 56 cases simultaneously.

Lord Weir responded: “They could be done simultaneously if they were adequately resourced. The only thing stopping them being worked on is an absence of resources and the Government provides the resources.”

Earlier, Lord Weir suggested that better training for staff involved in the disclosure process could help clear the backlog.

In his latest intervention, however, he points the finger squarely at government funding.

He added: “These cases are being delayed because the government is not adequately funding the work.”