A Stormont inquiry into institutional child abuse has created a hierarchy of victims, it has been claimed in the Assembly.
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leader Jim Allister described a decision not to widen the scope of the
investigation to include the victims of clerical abuse as a missed
opportunity.
The North Antrim MLA said: "Right as it is that we certainly address
the issue of institutional abuse, I think it is unfortunate that in the
addressing of it, we create a hierarchy of abuse victims - those abused
within institutions and those abused outside institutions who were
predominantly the object of clerical abuse. That issue cannot be
forgotten about or swept aside. The reality of this Bill is that it does forget about them. This was
an opportunity to address all abuse, including clerical abuse, and I
very much regret that has not been taken."
The Assembly was debating the details of the legislation which will
determine the remit of the inquiry which was announced in December 2010.
Former High Court Judge Sir Anthony Hart has been appointed to head
the panel that will examine whether there were systemic failings by care
homes, children's homes, borstals or the state in their duties towards
children.
Initially, the inquiry was to look at cases between 1945 and 1995 but
MLAs have agreed to extend it back to 1922. It comes after the Ryan
Report uncovered decades of endemic abuse in some religious institutions
in the Republic of Ireland.
DUP Junior Minister Jonathan Bell described the inquiry Bill as among
the most significant pieces of legislation to pass through the
Assembly.
He added: "I salute the victims of abuse. It is their courage, their
dignity, their tenacity, the triumph of their human spirit in the face
of suffering that none of us can ever fully understand that has brought
us to the place that we are in today. It is a truly historic day."
He said he believed the inquiry had enough scope to guard against
future abuse and that the issue of clerical abuse would be dealt with at
a later stage.