Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Allister wants wider abuse inquiry

A Stormont inquiry into institutional child abuse has created a hierarchy of victims, it has been claimed in the Assembly.

TUV leader Jim Allister described a decision not to widen the scope of the investigation to include the victims of clerical abuse as a missed opportunity.

The North Antrim MLA said: "Right as it is that we certainly address the issue of institutional abuse, I think it is unfortunate that in the addressing of it, we create a hierarchy of abuse victims - those abused within institutions and those abused outside institutions who were predominantly the object of clerical abuse. That issue cannot be forgotten about or swept aside. The reality of this Bill is that it does forget about them. This was an opportunity to address all abuse, including clerical abuse, and I very much regret that has not been taken."
 
The Assembly was debating the details of the legislation which will determine the remit of the inquiry which was announced in December 2010.

Former High Court Judge Sir Anthony Hart has been appointed to head the panel that will examine whether there were systemic failings by care homes, children's homes, borstals or the state in their duties towards children.

Initially, the inquiry was to look at cases between 1945 and 1995 but MLAs have agreed to extend it back to 1922. It comes after the Ryan Report uncovered decades of endemic abuse in some religious institutions in the Republic of Ireland.

DUP Junior Minister Jonathan Bell described the inquiry Bill as among the most significant pieces of legislation to pass through the Assembly.

He added: "I salute the victims of abuse. It is their courage, their dignity, their tenacity, the triumph of their human spirit in the face of suffering that none of us can ever fully understand that has brought us to the place that we are in today. It is a truly historic day."

He said he believed the inquiry had enough scope to guard against future abuse and that the issue of clerical abuse would be dealt with at a later stage.