'Sobering' proposals get broad welcome

Victims' reaction: Abuse victims' support groups have been mainly welcoming in their response to proposals by Mr Justice Ryan…

Victims' reaction: Abuse victims' support groups have been mainly welcoming in their response to proposals by Mr Justice Ryan to amend legislation governing the commission into child abuse.

Mr Tom Hayes of the Monaghan-based Alliance group said members were "very, very positive". There was, he said "a tremendous amount of aggression between groups and we want to see an end to that".

Where the issue generally was concerned, "we want to see it finished, ended, over with", he said.

Ms Christine Buckley of Dublin's Aislinn centre needed more time to study the proposals and would be issuing a statement on Wednesday. But she felt it appeared the commission "did not listen to us where naming and shaming was concerned". She also expressed "extreme concern" at how people were being "punished" at the Redress Board, where six other people had experiences similar to former hunger striker Mr Tom Sweeney. He had his offer of compensation reduced significantly on seeking a hearing with the board.

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She also could not understand how, if it was now possible to alter legislation around the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, it was not also possible to change legislation concerning the Redress Board.

Mr Colm O'Gorman, of the One in Four agency, felt that Justice Ryan's presentation yesterday was "very sobering". People would be hurt to realise that what they had been led to expect was not possible in law, but "they had to hear it".

He blamed the Government for, at the outset, raising expectations that could not be met. He was particularly impressed by Justice Ryan's proposals to investigate attitudes in Irish society to the institutions and the children in them, and to also look at the background to apologies by Church and State since 1996.

Mr John Kelly, of Irish SOCA, believed the role of the judiciary in committing children to the institutions should be investigated. "After all, there would have been no abuse if they were put in to those places in the first place," he said. In general he believed people had lost confidence in the commission. It was becoming "pointless".

Mr Mick Waters, of SOCA UK, felt "something had to be done" where the commission was concerned. "Time is not on our side. You just can't have a mini trial in every case," he said.

Mr Tony Treacy of the Cork-based Right of Place group gave "a cautious welcome" to the proposals, though he wondered if it was "sampling by the back door".

But he did believe it wasn't necessary to investigate every case where a particular institution was concerned to establish what went on there.

He recalled that before making its findings on the Baltimore Fisheries School, the commission interviewed just 20 former residents. He did not believe it necessary to interview all 400 former residents in Artane who had applied to the commission, to establish what went on there.

Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry

Patsy McGarry is a contributor to The Irish Times