New restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act would "silence and suppress" the voices of abuse victims if passed into law, a leading campaigner for victims' rights said yesterday.
Mr Colm O'Gorman, who is director of the One in Four organisation, said it was crucial for victims to uncover what might be the only supporting evidence about the abuse they suffered while in the care of State institutions.
But he told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service that new restriction on personal records exempting all but records containing personal information would place severe limits on the ability of abuse victims to complete the healing process.
"It is an essential part of the healing process for people abused in childhood to be able to reclaim their stories, to name what was done to them," he said.
Disclosures Mr O'Gorman made about the abuse he suffered as a child and teenager in Co Wexford were instrumental in the resignation last year of the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey.
He was speaking before the committee agreed a motion calling for "significant" amendments to the Bill proposed by the Government.
A Fianna Fáil member of the committee, Mr Conor Lenihan, said the clause related to personal information should not be restricted.
Mr O'Gorman said: "In a modern and progressive society, in a society that purports to care for its most vulnerable citizens, this cannot be allowed to happen."
He said: "We cannot overstate the importance of such files: so often they are the only evidence, the only validation that exists of such brutal and hidden crimes."
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties told the committee in an earlier presentation that the process of reviewing the Freedom of Information Act was "fundamentally flawed".
Its director, Ms Aisling Reidy, said the review by a group of senior civil servants could not be considered to be balanced. "These are restrictive amendments which will be detrimental to citizens' rights," she said.
It was extraordinary that the group had not consulted any of the stakeholders who used the Act, nor even the trade unions that represent civil servants.
The council had a concern that the exemptions on Cabinet documents had been widened, without any reference to whether the release of such records would cause particular harm to the Government.
It said a charge for information received would be preferable to an up-front fee, which would tend to discourage requests.
The chief executive of the Wheel, a group describing itself as a resource centre and advocate for Irish community and voluntary groups, criticised the introduction of an up-front fee for requests, saying it would reduce the capacity of voluntary groups to deliver services.
"Using price as a rationing mechanism will mean that less community and voluntary organisations will access information than is now the case," she said.
"It represents a tax on civic action that will result in a transfer of funds from an already under-funded community and voluntary sector to the State."
