Plea over abuse victims' cases
Two victims of child abuse must have their cases addressed by the Residential Institutions Redress Board, it was claimed today.
Marie Therese O’Loughlin and Derek Linster have been refused a hearing by the board on the grounds that the state was not responsible for the institutions they lived in.
But the Labour Party said the Government had to extend the remit of the board before the three-year deadline for applications expired next week.
“People like Marie Therese O’Loughlin and Derek Linster have spent years in residential care where they were abused. The state should not now prolong their agony by quibbling over legalisms,” said Justice spokesman Joe Costello TD.
Ms O’Loughlin, who is in her 50s, has maintained a vigil outside the Dáil for the last month in all weather conditions. She has said she fell from a high chair into an open fire at the Morning Star hostel in Dublin when she was a toddler and wants to be compensated for the scars she received.
Derek Linster spent a number of years at the Church of Ireland-run Bethany Home in Rathgar in Dublin as a child. His medical records show that he was transferred from there to a fever hospital with a range of illnesses, which he believes could have been caused by neglect.
However, they are among more than 90 people whose applications for compensation have been rejected by the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) because their institutions are not covered by the act.
The RIRB was set up in 2002 to compensate the victims of abuse in the industrial school system. There were 128 institutions listed as qualifying under the legislation but 13 more were added in November last year and a further three were added in July.
Education Minister Mary Hanafin has rejected adding the Morning Star hostel and Bethany House to the list on the grounds that there are no records to show that these institutions were ever regulated or inspected by the state.
But Mr Costello said the Department of Education had already admitted that major gaps existed in its records and files, particularly, in relation to industrial and reformatory schools.
He added that the state had a right to inspect the Morning Star and Bethany House under the Registration of Maternity Homes Act of 1934.
“We are calling on the minister to have compassion and take this decision immediately.”
Labour Party Education spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan TD said the stock answers to the victims’ plight was no longer enough.
“We cannot continue to walk past Marie Therese O’Loughlin as she keeps her vigil outside Dail Eireann in all weather. We cannot walk past her next Friday when the Dail goes into Christmas recess without a commitment that her case will be properly examined. Derek Linster’s case is equally convincing,” she said.
The RIRB has already paid out 1,066 awards of compensation, with an average value of €76,500.
The process is conducted behind closed doors and victims are not allowed to reveal the amount of their awards under pain of prosecution. The board has no role in the taking of criminal proceedings against those accused of perpetrating the abuse.
The RIRB has placed advertisements in the main Irish newspapers, as well as Irish newspapers in Britain, to publicise the expiry of the deadline for applications on December 15.
