Claims from abuse victims surge

SURVIVORS of institutional child abuse are predicting that the number of applications received by the Residential Institutions Redress Board will rocket to 12,000 by the December deadline.

The figure is double the number of applications that were expected to be made when the redress scheme was launched in 2002.

Patrick Walsh, British spokesperson for the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA), said he had been reliably informed by survivors that the number of applications had reached 8,522 by August 22 last - an increase of 1,476 in less than one month.