‘A dangerous precedent’: 75-year seal put on child abuse testimony

Thousands of testimonies relating to child abuse in residential institutions and related records are to be sealed and “withheld from public scrutiny” for 75 years under new legislation.

The Retention of Records Bill 2019 will see records from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board, and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee placed in the National Archives of Ireland and sealed for a minimum of 75 years.