Taoiseach to make formal apology to survivors of institutional abuse 

Mary Dunlevy Green, Miriam Moriarty Owens, Mary Donovan, and Maurice Patton O'Connell on hunger strike last November. File piture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The Taoiseach will make a formal apology in the Dáil on behalf of the Government to survivors of institutional abuse tomorrow.

The move follows a protest by four survivors outside Leinster House seeking additional supports for survivors of abuse in residential institutions. 

The group has met with a mediator and the Taoiseach and minister for education, with Micheál Martin writing to them to make commitments last November before they ended their protest.

These included a formal apology, and a confirmation by the minister of justice that no survivors have a criminal record just by virtue of having been in an industrial or reformatory school.

The group also raised an additional number of issues around supports such as medical cards.

Mr Martin informed Cabinet of his intention at Tuesday's cabinet meeting.

Maurice Patton O'Connell, Mary Donovan, Miriam Moriarty Owens, and Mary Dunleavy Greene went without food for more than a month, surviving on coffee and water.

They were regularly checked by medics, and they lost between three and four stone during their campaign. 

They camped out close to the Dáil and were sleeping rough in a tent over what they claimed were failures by the government to provide them with two recommendations from the redress scheme.

They insisted they were entitled to a Health Amendment Act (HAA) card and a contributory pension, which they say were promised by the Government but have not been delivered as part of the industrial schools' redress scheme. 

HAA cards are for people who contracted hepatitis C from blood products in the State. 

They provide free services such as GP visits, prescriptions, dentistry, hospital stays, and counselling.