The terms of an inquiry into historic institutional abuse in Northern Ireland will be announced in the autumn.
In
conjunction with abuse survivors, executive ministers said they will
explore a series of options and formats over the summer recess.
A
report prepared by a cross-departmental working group set up to examine
how an inquiry would proceed was presented to ministers at the last
executive meeting of the term at Stormont Castle.
It outlines a
number of possibilities, including one based on the model of the damning
Ryan Report in the Republic of Ireland which exposed decades of endemic
abuse in the state.
A decision on how to detail and investigate
past crimes committed in Catholic church and state-run institutions in
Northern Ireland will be made when the ministers return from recess in
the autumn.
A spokesman from the Office of the First Minister and
Deputy First Minister said a wide-ranging discussion on the issue was
held at the executive meeting.
"Ministers will now consider over
the summer all the issues and options set out in the report and their
implications, with a view to taking final decisions on the nature of the
inquiry into these issues early in the autumn," he said.
Junior
ministers Martina Anderson and Jonathan Bell will contact victims groups
and individual survivors over the summer to gauge their views on the
options contained in the interdepartmental taskforce report.