By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent
Thursday, December 29, 2011

DETAILS of the planned €500,000 memorial to victims of institutional child abuse will be announced next summer more than three years after it was proposed.
However, the location has yet to be confirmed and the expected date for completion is not yet available as it depends on the design.

The May 2009 report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, chaired by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, recommended that a permanent memorial be erected. It is to include the wording of the 1999 apology by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on behalf of the State for the suffering of those who were abused while in its care.

The committee to oversee the erection of the memorial was announced by then education minister Batt O’Keeffe in October 2009. The Office of Public Works (OPW) was asked to commission and deliver it with a €500,000 budget set aside.

The committee launched a design competition last July after consulting interested parties and survivor groups on the location and nature of the memorial.

A shortlist of six competitors has now been selected by an international jury of:

* Marta Santos Pais, special representative of the UN secretary-general on violence against children.

* Brian O’Doherty, sculptor and film-maker based in New York.

* Pat Cooney, OPW principal architect, and

* Vivienne Roche, co-founder of the National Sculpture Factory, Cork.

The Department of Education said yesterday that the committee expects to announce the competition winner next June.

The memorial committee is chaired by former OPW chairman Sean Benton. The other members are: Bernadette Fahy and Paddy Doyle representing survivors of abuse, Seán Ó Laoire of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Monica Corcoran of the Arts Council and former Cork county architect Billy Houlihan.

The child abuse commission’s costs could reach €100 million after the finalisation of all legal costs of third parties which were represented in its investigations and hearings. The final bill to the State of compensating those abused while in institutional care as children is set to top €1.1 billion, with almost 13,500 awards made to the end of 2010.

Design & Commissioning of a Memorial for Survivors of Institutional Abuse

As part of the Government’s implementation of the recommendations of the Ryan Report, a Committee was appointed by the Minister for Education & Skills to oversee the design and commissioning of a memorial for survivors of Institutional Abuse.

Following the consultative process, a competition is being organised and administered on behalf of the Committee by the Commissioners of Public Works. The competition is open to individuals and consortia and to professional and non-professional applicants.

Stage 1 of the competition, seeking expressions of interest, is now being launched. The closing date for receipt of expressions of interest is Thursday 13th of October 2011. A short-list of no more than ten applicants will be selected to go forward to Stage 2, which will require those short-listed to submit detailed and specific proposals for each stage of the design, planning and realisation of the memorial.

A document outlining details of the competition, including selection criteria, indicative dates, and competition jury membership is available on the Department of Education & Skills web-site www.education.ie and www.publicart.ie

A budget of up to € 500,000 is being set aside for the project which will be managed by the OPW.

By Claire O’Sullivan

Friday, August 13, 2010

SURVIVORS of institutional abuse have told the Government they will not support a national monument dedicated to their childhood suffering — as the Government is refusing to listen to them.

Wide divisions have developed between the Department of Education and institutional abuse survivors in recent months, with survivors accusing the Government of “failing them as children and failing them as adults”.

Meanwhile, huge rifts have also developed between survivors themselves.

Founder of the God Squad website The God Squad and institution survivor, Paddy Doyle said “the huge divisions amongst the survivor representative groups is crackpot stuff and won’t serve to achieve anything for ordinary survivors”.

Last April, the Government announced it was establishing a €110 million statutory fund for former residents of institutions, which 18 religious orders would contribute to over the coming years.

The extra money was sought by Taoiseach Brian Cowen in the aftermath of the damning Ryan Report, which highlighted the systematic physical, sexual and emotional abuse of young children.

The statutory fund will provide for the educational, health and housing needs of survivors. However, the survivors would rather that they were given money to spend as they wish.

John Kelly of Survivors of Church Abuse said most survivors are “too old for education to make any difference to their lives”.

“We are too old for education and we have medical cards. We should be able to use that money as we see fit — to look after our families in the way we want.

“We have told them we don’t want the monument until they begin to listen to us. I told the Taoiseach, ‘You robbed our childhood and now you are robbing us again and you aren’t listening to us’,” he said.

Survivors have voiced repeated concern about the 18-month waiting list for face-to-face counselling at the National Counselling Service.

A public consultation process is under way at present in advance of the establishment of the statutory fund. However, survivors have said they found out about it “by accident”.

A growing number of survivors are also complaining that survivor representative groups, funded by the Government, are failing to provide information as they should.

One survivor, Rose Gosnell from Cobh said Right of Place has done nothing to help her yet gets millions in government funding. “The place is overrun with cronyism. We are being trod on all over again,” she said.

Last night a Department of Education spokesman said the Government considered a “range of demands for the Redress Scheme to be extended and awards reviewed, however it felt it was not possible for it to second guess the independent board and associated appeals process to the Review Committee.”

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, August 13, 2010