NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Allan Preston
June 20 2017
Victims and survivors of institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland care homes have said plans to help them are “gathering dust” on Stormont’s shelves while those affected are “still denied justice to their death beds”.
In an open letter signed by 260 victims and survivors, the group spoke of their deep frustration that six months after the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry’s findings were published, no action was being taken.
In its report published in January, the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry recommended that the Stormont Executive “create a publicly funded compensation scheme”. The Executive was already well on its way to collapsing at this point, and ministerial decisions on compensation are still on hold.
The letter from the victims reads: “We welcomed its main findings — that the State was responsible for widespread and systemic failings, which left us, as vulnerable children, to suffer physical, sexual and mental abuse in supposed ‘care’ homes.
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