Abuse payouts may have to rise

PLANS to extend the list of institutions covered by the Residential Institutions Act will increase the State’s liability under the compensation scheme beyond the current estimate of €1.5 billion, child abuse survivors have warned.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education confirmed that the number of residential institutions would be increased, but was unable to say how many more would be added.

Under Section Four of the Redress Act, the Minister for Education can add to the list of institutions by statutory instrument.

Patrick Walsh of the Survivor of Child Abuse campaign (SOCA), said the proposed extension underlined the Government’s folly in not having a review clause included in the indemnity agreement that it negotiated with the 18 religious orders. He said it was inevitable that the list of institutions would be extended from the current 127 named institutions already covered under the act.

It was obvious to everyone now, said Mr Walsh, that the State’s liability had been left open. “It is a scandal that the indemnity agreement is non-negotiable while the State’s liability is open-ended,” he said.

Applications for compensation for abuse suffered by victims can be made to the Redress Board over the next three years. Under the terms of the redress deal the religious orders contributed €128 million in cash and property transfers, in return for an indemnity against future legal claims.

Awards of up to €300,000 can be made by the Redress Board but higher awards can be made if necessary.

Meanwhile, SOCA warned that the bid by the Laffoy Commission to make contact with children used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials in the 1960s would prove to be a tall order. The commission has placed newspaper advertisements urging people who lived in institutions that participated in the trials in 1960 and 1961 to contact it.

Mr Walsh said most of children would have been too young to even remember whether or not they had been used in the trial.

While the health status of the children involved in the drug trial is not known, legal experts say the trial was in breach of their right to bodily integrity, leaving the State, the homes and drugs company Glaxo Welcome open to major compensation claims.

Mr Walsh said the pharmaceutical firm had already admitted that there were virtually no records available on the trial.

It is understood that 38 children in five mother and baby homes and 10 children in an industrial school were involved in the trials. All were given a quadruple diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus and polio vaccine.