Politicians line up to apologise to Northern Ireland child abuse survivors over meeting abandoned because too few MLAs attended, as campaigner warns: ‘The most important apology is still to come’

Politicians had been due to hear from the commissioner for victims of historical institutional abuse on Wednesday but the meeting had to be abandonded because so few MLAs were present.

Abuse survivors, including Margaret McGuckin of lobby group SAVIA (Survivors And Victims of Institutional Abuse), said they had been “humiliated” and “let down” by the failure of so many MLAs to attend.

The meeting was reconvened on Friday morning and the commissioner, Fiona Ryan, stressed the need for survivors of historic abuse in residential children’s homes and other institutions to receive an apology, on behalf of the state, for the myriad failures that allowed the abuse to take place.

January will mark five years since a public inquiry found the abuse was widespread, recommended victims and survivors receive compensation and an official apology for the way they were treated.

It will also mark nine years since the inquiry opened.

On Wednesday, commissioner Fiona Ryan was due to be given time to outline the need for such an apology to members of the Stormont Executive Office committee, along with other abuse survivors’ concerns.

But with just three MLAs in attendance — from a total of nine committee members — the meeting had to be abandoned.

At Friday’s reconvened meeting, committee members lined up to add their voices to the apology offered by committee chair Sinead McLaughlin.

Afterwards Ms McGuckin, who was abused in the Sisters of Nazareth orphanage, told the News Letter the politicians’ apologies were welcome but stressed that the “most important apology” — the official state apology recommended by the inquiry — is still to come.

After the meeting collapsed earlier in the week, she said: “It was humiliating. It was a rejection and it showed them for what they really are.”

On Friday, she said: “The MLAs had to come in with humility, because they had been showed up by what had happened. We had to trail them back, summon them back, to the reconvened meeting with red faces. We accept their apology, but they should have known better. They are people with highly paid positions, who lay the law of the land.” She added: “The most important apology is still to come.”