Saturday, May 30, 2009

No danger of testimonies being destroyed, says commission

HUNDREDS of thousands of documents and witness testimonies compiled by the Child Abuse Commission are not in any imminent danger of destruction, the commission said.

No decision has been taken about what to do with the sensitive papers and the Commission said that despite some reports to the contrary, it is under no set deadline for clearing its desks.

The vast majority of evidence gathered by the Commission was given under guarantee of confidentiality, but concerns have been expressed that valuable information could be lost if the paper trail was destroyed.

Labour’s Joan Burton, who raised the issue in the Dáil, said: "I understand it may be necessary for the documents to be held confidentially for a protracted period, but it would seem extraordinary for the records of the Ryan Commission to be disposed of."

She continued: "There are strong indications that the commission is leaning towards the destruction of the documents, but this would be an appalling insult to the people who suffered in various institutions."

Health Minister Mary Harney said the Government would seek the

advice of the Attorney General on the matter, but she added that the files were a matter for commission chairman, Mr Justice Sean Ryan.

"Very often in these cases information is given on a confidential basis. I know this arose in my case with the Dunne inquiry into organ retention when it was not legally possible to publish its documentation. Whether it can be retained is a different issue and I will speak to the Attorney General on that."

A commission spokeswoman confirmed that no decision had been taken about the future of the vast amount of files that had built up over the 10 years of hearings and investigations and she said there was no rush to determine their future.

"We have a lot of work to do to shut the commission down. We have a lot of applications for legal fees to determine and we still have a lot of bills that have yet to come in, so how long all that will take we don’t yet know, and we aren’t under any deadline to move out of our offices," she said.
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