THE HIGH Court will rule next week on a legal challenge by a man to the Residential Institutions Redress Board’s refusal to accept his application for compensation for alleged abuse in an industrial school.
The board has refused to accept the application on grounds it was made too late and outside the specified time limits for applications for the scheme, which was established in 2002.
The man, now in his 70s, had been in St Patrick’s industrial school at Upton in Cork for six years in the 1940s and 1950s where he claimed he was abused.
In his judicial review proceedings, the man claims the application should be allowed on grounds his own particular circumstances constitute exceptional circumstances allowing the claim to be considered. The man claims he had insufficient opportunity to submit his application on or before the deadline for applications to the board – that were fixed for December 15th, 2005.
He claims the scheme was not adequately advertised in England where he has lived since the mid 1950s. The board has rejected those claims and has argued no exceptional circumstances exist allowing consideration of the claim.
Following the conclusion of submissions from both sides yesterday, Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe said he would give judgment next Wednesday.
The man claims he was unaware of the redress scheme until November 13th, 2005, when he saw an advertisement in a newspaper, and did not understand the process, that there was a closing date or how to apply.
In January 2006, he claims he was eventually advised about the redress scheme at the Irish Centre in Coventry and on January 23rd, 2006, filled out an application form. That was rejected by the board, initially in May 2006 and again in May 2007, as being out of time. The man and 17 others later took a High Court challenge to the board’s refusal to accept their applications but that was settled on the basis of an agreement the board would conduct oral hearings, which took place last October. In its decision on December 19th, 2008, the board again rejected the man’s application.