VICTIMS have demanded public inquiries into clerical child abuse and mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland following the resignation of the independent chair of a Stormont task force set up to make recommendations on the issues.
Norah Gibbons, the chair of the Executive's inter-departmental working group on clerical abuse and abuse in mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries, resigned on Monday on health grounds.
One victim said abuse survivors had finally been due to meet the group yesterday - after more than a year of waiting.
Eunan Duffy, who was born in the Marian Vale mother and baby home in Newry before being forcibly adopted, said yesterday's meeting had been cancelled.
"We are now calling for a fresh approach, one where the victims are listened to," he said.
"Our message now, as it has been for years, is that we want a public inquiry. We want government to finally listen to us, rather than simply waste more time by looking for a new chair for a process which has lost all credibility by its failure to meet with victims in more than a year."
Solicitor Claire McKeegan, who represents many abuse victims, wished Ms Gibbons a speedy recovery.
She said victims had been left in an "entirely unsatisfactory situation".
"Six years on from the implementation of the HIA Inquiry and the survivors and victims of the Mother and Baby homes and clerical abuse in Northern Ireland are still no closer to any form or vindication or justice for the inexcusable wrongs that were perpetrated on them," she said.
