EARLIER this week the Irish News carried an article that stated four more victims of institutional child abuse had died in the last two months.
All of them were aged in their 50s or early 60s. The expected lifespan of a person raised in care is considerably lower than the rest of the population and there is a reason for that.
A childhood blighted with trauma, cruelty and neglect, makes for an ill adult.
In July, abuse victim Billy McConville made a plea from his hospital bed for politicians to act before it was too late. It was already too late for him and he died less than three weeks later.
His family story was unusual in that he was in care as the orphan son of IRA victim Jean McConville, but what happened to him after that was depressingly familiar.
Like all the victims who gave evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry, his was a childhood blighted with abuse at the hands of those tasked with caring for him.
Every time I write about this subject I get told both online and in delightful letters that I am anti Catholic Church, or trying to put one victim above another.
Being shocked, horrified and repulsed by child abuse, regardless of who was the perpetrator I would have thought was a normal response. I am amazed that despite the inquiry findings of systemic abuse and neglect in some Catholic children's homes there are those who still seek to defend the indefensible.
And so I make no apologies for using this column to highlight the plight of victims. These are people failed time and time again and should not be dying in poverty and distress.
The hope that they felt in January of this year when Sir Anthony Hart delivered his comprehensive report into their plight was short lived, because without a functioning assembly they've been left in limbo.
The political crisis is one that is being used to excuse all sorts of failings.
This includes the snail's pace at which historic inquests are currently taking place into legacy killings.
The £150 million provided to speed up this process remains trapped in political limbo.
The DUP expressed concern that the majority of inquests were focusing on state killings, people shot dead mainly by members of the British army in disputed circumstances.
This ignored the fact that the biggest inquest currently taking place is into the Kingsmill atrocity into the murder of 10 Protestant workmen.
Inquests are not trials, they are not witch-hunts. No one will be convicted by an inquest.
They are truth recovery exercises which at this late stage, in some cases 40 years after shootings took place, is the best those families can hope for.
Inquests held at the time were often one-day affairs with no witnesses called, and in some cases the families were not even informed.
Righting that wrong is the least they deserve, the money for that exists, it was stopped by the DUP but remains ring fenced just for this purpose.
It is becoming more obvious with each new day that the political experiment that was mandatory coalition government is over.
Former Sinn Féin director of publicity Danny Morrison said as much to my colleague John Manley in a recent interview carried in this paper.
There's talk of yet another election, for all the good that will do.
There needs to be discussion about establishing a different form of government, a more lasting and sustainable government, whether that’s voluntary coalition or joint authority between the British and Irish governments remains to be seen.
While this is important for long term stability it is no longer a valid excuse to deny people the services they need and are entitled to.
The Secretary of State James Brokenshire has the power to authorise compensation to the victims of Church and state child abuse so their last days aren't spend in miserable poverty.
He has the authority to draw down the £150 million set aside for inquests to speed that process up so those family members waiting a life time on justice finally get the answers they need and deserve.
He should do the right thing without further delay before any more victims die in emotional agony and turmoil.
