Year delay before abuse inquiry decides on documents

IT will be another year before it will be known if the Ryan Commission’s one million written documents and oral testimony will be destroyed.

The oral testimony, while of potentially enormous historical value, is at greater risk of being destroyed as it was made to a confidential committee who by statute have an extra layer of legal confidentiality. Victims were given assurances that all testimony would be confidential. However, historians have argued that it should be retained for posterity. Last July, the Dáil voted for all the Ryan Report documentation to be preserved.

Secretary to the Ryan Commission, Brenda McVeigh said it is up to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse chairman Mr Justice Sean Ryan and commissioners to decide what happens to the evidence.