It is understandable that Stormont committee meetings should sometimes have to be cancelled because not enough MLAs can be present.
However, it was particularly disappointing to see that Wednesday’s meeting of the Committee for the Executive Office had to be abandoned, because only three of its nine members were in attendance.
It had been scheduled to discuss institutional childhood abuse. The Commissioner for Survivors of Institutional Abuse, Fiona Ryan, had been due to update members on her work.
She later said that survivors' groups had told her that abandoning the meeting had caused deep hurt and that for many victims it was a reminder of how they had been treated throughout their lives.
It is unclear why so many MLAs were absent. They lead busy lives which requires them to prioritise their responsibilities, but it is difficult to imagine that there are many issues more pressing than an update on institutional child abuse.
Since this particular committee advises and assists the first and deputy first ministers, abandoning the meeting meant that they were also unable to be updated. The spirit of Christmas was not what it might have been in one Stormont committee room on Wednesday.
Committee chair, the SDLP’s Sinead McLaughlin, apologised to victims and survivors for the disrespectful way they had been treated, pointing out that she was “totally gutted” at what had happened. Her apology was both heartfelt and powerful.
However, the public image of the committee as somewhat uncaring will be hard to shake off.
Those unable or unwilling to attend merely had to notify the committee in advance, so that the meeting could have been cancelled and an alternative date arranged. Why was this not done?
It would be helpful for victims and survivors, and indeed the general public, to be informed as to why the meeting had to be abandoned. Where were the absent members?
Until there is some clarity about what happened and why, the committee’s behaviour will continue to send out the wrong message. That message says that institutional child abuse is not really an important issue.
While Sinead McLaughlin’s apology is welcome, we really need to hear from those who were absent.
An apology and an explanation from them would be an appropriate Christmas gesture for those who were so badly let down on Wednesday.
