IT'S a subject that many people choose to avoid and one that has been swept under the carpet for too long.
While serving in the First Minister’s Office I met on several occasions with those who were sexually and otherwise abused while they were resident in institutions in Northern Ireland that were charged with their care and safety when they were vulnerable children.
Both Martin and I were deeply affected by their stories and distressed by the impact of these experiences on the remainder of their lives.
The victims wanted the opportunity to tell their stories and needed an apology for the suffering they had endured.
Compensation was not top of their agenda but Martin and I recognised that there had to be a financial aspect to any just outcome of this appalling and vile chapter.
We set up a public inquiry and provided it with the terms of reference to meet the needs, as best as was possible, of those involved.
Sir Anthony Hart has fulfilled his charge with great sensitivity and with boundless thoroughness and his Report lies waiting for action. He has already made public his impatience at the delay in implementing his recommendations.
Nobody is in a better position – save the victims themselves – to evaluate the urgency of dealing with this issue than the man who we persuaded to carry out this Inquiry.
For months he listened to the horrifying tales of depravity and cruelty that young people had faced while in local institutions. For months he witnessed the tortured features of those who had suffered abuse.
He will have concluded, as have all those who come into contact with the victims, that there is nothing “historic” about this abuse. The victims live it every day anew.
It had been my hope that a timely consideration of the Report would have resulted in a studied announcement that reflected the gravity of the situation and that immediate apologies and compensation would follow.
It had also been my view that institutions, other than the State, who had been culpable, would also have stepped up to the plate and accepted their responsibility in both verbal and financial terms.
That was my hope but it has not been the outcome. The Stormont collapse has caused delay and the implementation of Judge Hart’s findings have thus been, unfairly and unnecessarily, further deferred.
I do not believe this is an issue of much contention among the local parties and certainly not one that should cause anyone to complain if the Secretary of State were to action the findings immediately.
Having been the helpless victims of sexual exploitation and ill-treatment they have lived lives as the victims of society’s denial, disinterest or apathy and now they have become the victims of political stalemate and stasis.
The victims of institutional abuse have waited an inordinately long and unacceptable time for the truth to be revealed, recognised and a measure of reparation to be made.
I urge the Secretary of State to consult with the parties about this issue and assess whether, at least on this outstanding matter, there is sufficient consensus to proceed in all or part with the implementation of the HIA Report. Justice and humanity demands action now.
