Historical Institutional Abuse: Why are Stormont ministers apologising?

An apology on behalf of the Northern Ireland government was recommended five years ago following a public inquiry.

The inquiry found that the abuse of children — including physical, mental and sexual abuse — was “widespread” in residential institutions in Northern Ireland during the period from 1922 to 1995.

Although most reports of abuse related to Church-run homes, the inquiry also found that abuse had taken place in institutions run by a range of bodies, including the state and the charity Barnardo’s.

The chair of the inquiry, the late Sir Anthony Hart, made a series of recommendations including a public apology to survivors, the establishment of a commissioner for survivors of institutional abuse, specialist care and assistance for survivors, and compensation.

The recommendations have taken years to be implemented.

The inquiry report was published in 2017, just four days after the devolved administration collapsed following the RHI scandal.

The compensation scheme recommended by Sir Anthony Hart was established through legislation at Westminster in the absence of the powersharing Executive at Stormont.

The apology, meanwhile, was agreed in January this year — on the fifth anniversary of the publication of the Hart inquiry’s report.

It was to be delivered by the First and Deputy First Ministers Paul Givan and Michelle O’Neill, but the withdrawal of Mr Givan from his post as First Minister in protest at the post-Brexit trading arrangemnt known as the Northern Ireland Protocol has meant that can no longer happen.

Instead, the ministers of education, finance, infrastructure, health and justice — Michelle McIlveen, Conor Murphy, Nichola Mallon, Robin Swann and Naomi Long — are to deliver the apology.

The state apology will be followed by apologies on behalf of non-state institutions where child abuse took place — including De La Salle, Sisters of Nazareth, Sisters of St Louis, Good Shepherd Sisters, Barnardo’s, and the Irish Church Missions.