Long-awaited apology at Stormont for historical institutional abuse victims

A long-awaited public apology to the victims of historical institutional abuse will be delivered later at Stormont.

Survivors will watch on in the Assembly chamber as a silence of one minute is held before ministers offer an apology on behalf of the powersharing Executive.

The apology will be delivered by five ministers, representing each of the main parties, in the absence of a first and deputy first minister.

A long-awaited public apology to the victims of historical institutional abuse will be delivered later at Stormont.https://t.co/n81vQ0f6dw

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Michelle McIlveen, Conor Murphy, Nichola Mallon, Robin Swann and Naomi Long will make the apology after Paul Givan resigned earlier this year, which also removed Michelle O’Neill from the joint office.

Representatives from six religious organisations, which ran the institutions, will also offer an apology.

The institutions were run by the religious orders, including De La Salle, Sisters of Nazareth, Sisters of St Louis and the Good Shepherd Sisters, as well as churches, the State and charities.

The public apology was recommended in the final report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI), which was published more than five years ago.

The inquiry ran for four years, examining allegations of abuse in 22 homes and other residential institutions in Northern Ireland.

Inquiry chair Sir Anthony Hart outlined a series of recommendations after he revealed the shocking levels of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the period 1922 to 1995.

He also found evidence of “systemic failings”.

The recommendations included that those abused in state, church and charity run homes should be offered compensation as well as an official apology from government and the organisations which ran the residential facilities where it happened – and a memorial.

He said the minimum payout should be £7,500 with the maximum amount given to those who had experienced severe levels of abuse as well as being transported to Australia in a controversial migrant scheme.

The compensation scheme opened in 2020.

By the end of November 2021, more than £26 million had been paid out to survivors.

Fiona Ryan was appointed in 2020 as Commissioner for Survivors of Institutional Childhood Abuse (Cosica) fulfilling another one of the recommendations.

The final recommendation, which remains outstanding, is the creation of a suitable physical memorial sited within Parliament Buildings or the Stormont estate.