THE LABOUR Party has published a Private Members’ Bill that would cater for victims of abuse previously excluded from compensation by the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
The party’s education spokesman Ruairí Quinn said that some people had “very legitimate reasons” for missing the deadline for applications for redress.
“This issue has particularly been raised with us by groups in Britain who represent people who simply did not know about the existence of the redress board or who were simply too ill or traumatised to be able to apply,” Mr Quinn said. He added that some people were excluded because they were abused in institutions which were not listed in the schedule to the Redress Act.
He said others had been refused redress because they were underage under the law as it stood at the time they were in institutions.
“They would not be considered to be underage in modern law,” he said.
Mr Quinn said the Institutional Child Abuse Bill also dealt with the concerns of some victims of abuse that they had a criminal record by virtue of having been committed to an institution.
“The Bill proposes that those persons must be treated for all purposes in law as persons who have not committed or been charged with or prosecuted for or convicted of or sentenced for any offence,” he said.
“Their records will, in other words, be wiped clean.”
He said applicants to the redress board were prohibited from publishing any information concerning an application or award that referred to another person or institution by name or could lead to identification.
“This effectively prohibited applicants from recounting the stories of their childhood,” Mr Quinn said.
He said the Bill would delete this section of the Redress Act.
Mr Quinn said he had heard reports “that both the redress board and the Child Abuse Commission may be considering the destruction of documents they hold relating to the testimony or witnesses or other papers”.
He said that the records must be maintained and must be accessible.
“To destroy these documents would add insult to injury for those who suffered abuse.”
Mr Quinn said the Labour Party had limited Private Members’ Time during which the Bill might be debated in the Dáil.
“We would be very happy for the Government to take over the Bill and to have it enacted in Government time. This would be the speediest and most effective way to proceed.”
