Groups representing survivors of abuse in residential institutions are to press Department of Education officials today to contact each of the approximately 1,700 people concerned to see whether they still wished to go before the investigation committee of the Laffoy commission.
And it has emerged that most groups are prepared to accept the hearing of sample cases as opposed to individual hearings by the committee, provided the numbers are more representative than proposed.
One source pointed out that representatives of the four survivor groups who attended a meeting with the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, on August 19th, had agreed in principle to sampling, but had disagreed with him on numbers.
It was also claimed that many of the 1,700 who put their names before the investigation committee did so because they were thinking ahead to Miss Justice Laffoy's final report, hoping to ensure she could make recommendations to prevent such abuse ever happening again. "It was not about money, or justice, or revenge, or wanting to face their abusers, most of whom are dead anyway," one source said.
At 11 a.m. today, Department officials will meet members of the Alliance, SOCA (UK), and the Right of Place groups in the National Office of Victims of Abuse in Dublin. The Aislinn group, which accompanied the other three at meetings with Department officials in December, January and August, will not be attending.
Ms Christine Buckley of Aislinn said it would be "a total waste of time". The group was awaiting legal analysis of correspondence between Miss Justice Laffoy, the Department and the Government, she said. Besides, their recommendations at previous meetings were "ignored at every level", she said.
She cited Aislinn's repeated suggestion that the Department write to all those due before the investigation committee to see if they wished to go ahead. Most of its members, who had been before the Redress Board, had found the experience so traumatic they did not want to go before the committee, she said. As part of the redress process, each was interviewed by a psychiatrist about their abuse.
Aislinn had also proposed that Miss Justice Laffoy be given extra personnel to speed up the commission's work. That, too, had been ignored, she said.
Mr Tom Hayes of the Alliance group said research among its members indicated many were unaware that investigation committee hearings were adversarial, and that when they heard this they did not wish to go ahead. For that reason he, too, felt relevant survivors should be asked again.
Mr Mick Waters of SOCA (UK) said he would attend the meeting with an open mind. He was disappointed Aislinn would not be there.
"I had hoped we would all go in there and see what they had to say. Then we could decide," he said. He added he had received "a marvellous response" to his call last week for unity among survivor groups.
