Jul

30

A CONSULTATION PROPOSAL – STATUTORY FUND

Filed Under Proposed Statutory Fund | 210 Comments

Public Consultation

Proposed Statutory Fund to support the needs of Survivors of Residential Institutional Child Abuse.

The Government has announced its proposal to use €110m of the offers of contributions from religious Congregations to establish and operate a Statutory Fund to support the needs of survivors of residential institutional child abuse and for other education and welfare purposes.

The Statutory Fund is being proposed to support the continuing education, health and welfare needs faced by survivors. The Fund will not provide cash compensation for survivors and will be separate and distinct from the compensation scheme operated by the independent Residential Institutions Redress Board, which provides fair and reasonable awards to victims of institutional childhood abuse.

As part of the consultation process, the Department of Education and Skills is meeting with groups representing survivors of institutional child abuse and the religious Congregations. However, many survivors are not affiliated to groups and may wish to contribute independently to the process. As the Department wishes to consult as widely as possible it invites the views of all interested parties.

Submissions should identify, as far as possible, the specific needs facing survivors and suggest how the Fund should operate to assist in meeting these needs.

Written submissions can be emailed to StatutoryFund@education.gov.ie or posted to Statutory Fund Consultation, Department of Education and Skills, Block 2, Marlborough Street, Dublin 1.

A Freefone Service is available to receive comments from Monday to Friday between 10am and 1pm by phoning 1800 938 140 (Republic of Ireland) or 0800 0148912 (NI & UK) (this service is being operated by Barnardos on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills).

The closing date for the receipt of submissions is Friday 27th August, 2010.

Please note that all comments, observations and submissions will be subject to the Freedom of Information Acts 1997-2003. Consequently when submitting material, a person should identify any information which they do not wish to have released together with an accompanying explanation.

Jul

24

Lawyers tout for late abuse redress claims

Filed Under The Redress Board | 15 Comments

By ALISON O’RIORDAN

Sunday July 18 2010

FIVE years after it was supposed to shut up shop solicitors are again touting for customers to claim compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB).

So far, solicitors have earned €148m in fees and the RIRB is now preparing to accept more ‘late applications’. The RIRB has, to date, given out at least €800m in compensation to those who spent time in residential institutions.

Now, at least one Dublin solicitor is looking for ‘late applicants’ who didn’t claim– including the sons and daughters of those who were in such institutions to see if they are entitled to claim.

Where a person who is entitled to redress has died since May 11, 1999, the application may be made by his or her spouse or children. Burns Kelly Corrigan solicitors is just one of 856 firms of solicitors who have received a total of 12,034 applications for compensation under the scheme.

“Our firm has been involved with the redress board since 2005, and originally had thousands of applications,” said a solicitor from the firm. “We have got a couple of hundred of late applications, which have been successful. We charge no fee (to applicants) as the redress board pays our fee separately if the application is successful.”

With the final date for receipt of applications as far back as December 2005, victims still receive an average of €63,210 compensation.

The RIRB has so far completed the process in 13,743 cases, with 10,188 offers having been made following settlement talks and 2,741 awards being made.

The board refused to comment on how many applications had been made by spouses or children of those in care. It said the highest award so far had been €300,000.

The redress board was set up to make ‘fair and reasonable awards’ to persons who, as children, were abused while resident in industrial schools, reformatories and other institutions subject to state regulation or inspection.

According to the Department of Education: “The board is continuing to perform its functions including processing the remaining applications and when this process is completed, the department. . . will make the necessary arrangements for its dissolution.”

The final bill is expected to be around €1.1bn.

- ALISON O’RIORDAN

Sunday Independent

Jul

10

Papal apologies are all well and good – now is the time for action

Filed Under Child Abuse | 32 Comments

The Irish Times – Tuesday, July 6, 2010

FR ROBERT HOATSON

RITE & REASON: If clerical abuse victims are to recover, the Vatican must heed this five-point plan

THE POPE has apologised to victims of clergy sexual abuse in face-to-face meetings in Washington DC, Malta, and Australia, and in speeches in a number of places, including at a rally for priests recently in St Peter’s Square. While apologies are all well and good, the pope must now develop an action plan to meet the recovery needs of victims.

When my priest colleague Fr Ken Lasch and I realised in 2003 that little or nothing was being done to meet the diverse needs of victims of clergy sexual abuse, we embarked on the establishment of Road to Recovery, Inc.

It is a New Jersey-based charity that offers assistance of all sorts to help victims of clergy sexual abuse survive and recover. Road to Recovery helps victims pay their rents, mortgages, utility and other bills, and allocates funds for medicine, food and clothing, and a host of other needs that victims of clergy sexual abuse have.

Now that Pope Benedict has apologised profusely on a number of occasions, we at Road to Recovery would like him to consider the following five-point proposal that would go far in helping those who have survived clergy sexual abuse.

What is proposed below is an all-out assault on shame, guilt, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, low self-esteem, and all other effects of clergy sexual abuse. And Fr Ken and I offer our experience and expertise to the pope as he implements these steps, for we have worked with more than 1,000 victims and their families during the past seven years.

We propose that Pope Benedict and the Vatican:

1) Hold a media event at which Pope Benedict calls forth from silence and shame any and all victims of clergy sexual abuse with the blanket assurance that they will be taken care of;

2) Refer all victims to panels of independent lay Catholics and non-Catholics who can properly assess the damage to and needs of the survivors. In addition, victims’ family members will be assessed for damage as well – clergy sexual abuse affects entire families;

3) Establish in every diocese and/or region of the world Centres for Restorative Healing. These centres will be comprehensive in-patient and out-patient medical and social service facilities, meeting the needs of survivors in the areas of housing, medicine, psychological counselling, food and clothing, education, career counselling, and whatever else the victims need;

4) All facilities will be paid for by the Roman Catholic Church and will remain open and operational until every last victim is restored to health. Victims will never be turned away from or denied services for as long as they live;

5) Use the resources and experience of Road to Recovery of the US to advise the Vatican in the establishment of a comprehensive programme of healing for victims. Victims of clergy sexual abuse live in terror, turmoil, and torment every day of their lives.

In most cases their souls were murdered by men and women who represented God.

It is time the church placed these individuals and their families at the top of the list of priorities. No longer should a survivor have to worry about where his or her next meal will come from, how the household bills will be paid, how to fend off the latest panic or anxiety attack, or how to cope with nightmares and depression.

There will always be time for apologies but apologies are just words. The Vatican can demonstrate its apology by getting to work and giving victims what they need to heal.

The time for healing is now.

Fr Robert M Hoatson, PhD, is co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, Inc, a non-profit charity serving clergy abuse survivors. It is based in West Orange, New Jersey. He is at rmhoatson1@msn.com. The website is: road-to-recovery.org

Jul

6

These materials must be preserved.

Filed Under RYAN REPORT - Institutional Abuse of Children in Care | 9 Comments

I read with interest Claire O’Sullivan’s article entitled, “Year delay before abuse inquiry decides on documents” (Monday, July 5, 2010). The very idea that any documents related to the Ryan Commission would be destroyed is deeply concerning. These documents—all these documents—constitute part of the nation’s heritage and, as such, they should be preserved and protected so that future generations never forgot the past while also ensuring no repetition thereof.

Survivors of the State’s residential institutions, moreover, are deeply divided, indeed sceptical, regarding the whole Redress Board and Ryan Commission process. One must ask therefore who precisely is being served by destroying documents? Might it be the State itself? Or, the religious congregations? Given the potential conflict of interest, it would seem appropriate that the Minister for Education commission an independent review prior to any irreversible action.

In this context, I would also ask whether documents related to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission were destroyed? Would anyone consider destroying documents related to the Holocaust? Confidentiality and privacy are, of course, always legitimate concerns. But professional archivists can ensure ethical handling of sensitive materials.

The Ryan Commission documents also contain material related to Ireland’s Magdalene institutions, and other institutions ultimately excluded from the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002. Given that the religious congregations refuse to provide access to records for women entering their Magdalene institutions after 1 January 1900, it is inconceivable that the State would consciously destroy documents that might help us better understand how such institutions operated, as well as the nature of the relationship between Magdalene laundries and State residential institutions. Again, there would appear to be a potential conflict of interest at play in this particular regard.

The Ryan Commission will remain significant in helping Irish people understand who we are as a nation, in the present as well as the past. These materials must be preserved.

Sincerely,

James M. Smith
Associate Professor
English Department and Irish Studies Program
Boston College
Chestnut HIll, MA 02467
617-552-1596
smithbt@bc.edu

Jul

5

Year delay before abuse inquiry decides on documents

Filed Under RYAN REPORT - Institutional Abuse of Children in Care | 13 Comments

By Claire O’Sullivan

Monday, July 05, 2010

IT will be another year before it will be known if the Ryan Commission’s one million written documents and oral testimony will be destroyed.

The oral testimony, while of potentially enormous historical value, is at greater risk of being destroyed as it was made to a confidential committee who by statute have an extra layer of legal confidentiality. Victims were given assurances that all testimony would be confidential. However, historians have argued that it should be retained for posterity. Last July, the Dáil voted for all the Ryan Report documentation to be preserved.

Secretary to the Ryan Commission, Brenda McVeigh said it is up to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse chairman Mr Justice Sean Ryan and commissioners to decide what happens to the evidence.

She warned however that the audio testimony is highly confidential “untested evidence” and the alleged perpetrators were never given the right of reply. Commission staff are cataloguing the millions of written documents so they can give them to the chairman and commissioners. These documents obtained by discovery relate to individuals and institutions.

The bulk of work being done at present by the commission’s four full-time and three part-time staff relates to the examination of claims for legal costs. Most claims have been successfully negotiated by the commission but recently Ms McVeigh said a few have “broken down” and will have to be sent to the Taxing Master at the High Court for independent assessment.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, July 05, 2010