The chairman of Northern Ireland’s historical abuse inquiry has urged the UK’s Northern Secretary James Brokenshire to implement recommendations he made in his report which was published six months ago.
They include compensation, an apology to survivors and a memorial.
Sir Anthony Hart said his report was both widely supported in the previous Assembly earlier this year and the subject of an assurance from the prime minister that it would be acted on.
His Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry into the treatment of children in residential homes over many decades found evidence of widespread mistreatment.
Sir Anthony said: “Because of the wide welcome for, and support of the report, expressed in the previous Assembly on 23 January, and the clear undertaking by the Prime Minster to the House of Commons on 8 February that the findings of the report will be ‘taken into account and acted upon’ I feel justified in urging you to put in hand the necessary steps to implement the recommendations of the Inquiry in full as a matter of urgency and without delay.”
The inquiry has officially come to an end and Sir Anthony wrote to the Northern Ireland Secretary in the absence of a first or deputy first minister to notify him.
The 2,300 page, 12-volume report, came after an inquiry was set up to investigate physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and childhood neglect which occurred in residential institutions over a 73-year period up to 1995.
-PA