Abuse-inquiry proposals draw mixed response

The recommendations contained in the review by the new chairman of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse have received a mixed reaction today.

Mr Justice Seán Ryan's review was released yesterday by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey. Among the main recommendations were that not all 1,712 cases be heard by the commission.

Instead, each case would be evaluated as to whether or not there was the possibility of reaching a conclusion before an investigation is begun. He also recommended grouping cases together where the abuse occurred at the same time and place.

Last year, Mr Dempsey angered victim-support groups by suggesting the inquiry be speeded up by merely investigating a number of sample cases and using them as a watermark for awarding compensation. The groups rejected this idea.

Mr Justice Ryan's proposals were welcomed by the One in Four Group last night, which said it was heartened by the fact the sampling idea had been rejected.

However, other victim-support groups, including Aislinn and Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA), were less positive about the review. "This is sampling by another name," Mr John Kelly of SOCA insisted. "It's warped justice." Aislinn's Ms Christine Buckley asked how her group's members were expected to "trust a review which did not consult victims?"

Fine Gael's education spokeswoman, Ms Olwyn Enright, said she was "pleased" that sampling had been dismissed as an option. "However, the proposal to group cases that fall into logical units together will need to be examined very carefully, and considered in conjunction with the wishes of the victims of abuse."

The Labour Party education spokeswoman, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said she welcomed  "the  very  specific  and  unconditional  rejection  of the sampling approach". This, she said, would have "been  unjust and unfair to victims to who would have been denied the opportunity to  have  their  cases heard and their stories told."

But Ms O'Sullivan questioned the need for this new review, arguing that most of the recommendations in the new review had already been proposed by the previous Commission chairwoman, Ms Justice Laffoy, who resigned last September over what she called Government interference in her work.

The judge was also angered at the lack of resources available to her. An interim report from Ms Justice Laffoy, which is expected to be highly critical of the Minister for Education, is due to be released in the coming weeks.

Mr Justice Ryan's  review - the second since the inquiry was establised in 2000 - was prompted by a desire from the Government to speed up the inquiry, which, according to estimates, could last for another 11 years.

Mr Dempsey accepted yesterday for the first time the total cost of the child-abuse scandal to the State could top €1 billion in compensation and legal fees.