Four groups representing survivors of child abuse are appealing for an urgent meeting between victims and the Government-appointed commission set up to investigate the abuses.
The groups say the five-member commission, chaired by Ms Justice Laffoy, is "in danger of losing the plot" and that victims are being sidelined by some solicitors who are giving them "misguided" information.
The commission was set up to investigate child abuse in State institutions and religious-run schools since the 1940s which was revealed in RTE's States of Fear documentaries.
The groups, who say they represent about 90 per cent of victims, are the Alliance for Healing of Institutional Abuse, Right of Place in Cork, Survivors of Child Abuse UK and the Aislinn Centre for Victims of Institutional Abuse.
In a joint statement issued yesterday, they said Ms Justice Laffoy should stop hiding behind the commission's legal restrictions and explain its therapeutic potential in simple terms to victims through the media.
Ms Christine Buckley from the Aislinn Centre said victims had come to the centre in distress showing letters from solicitors advising them not to co-operate with the commission. It is due to start its main task of hearing their testimonies in the autumn.
"Some lawyers are telling victims that if you go to tell your story, that could be used against you in a civil case when Ms Justice Laffoy has made it clear that all evidence will be shredded.
"Ninety-seven per cent of people in care didn't receive education and we feel some lawyers are giving them misguided information," she said.
Some victims' groups are also advising members to boycott the commission, but the groups who made yesterday's statement have stopped short of advocating this.
Solicitors attending the commission on behalf of victims will receive daily fees of £850, the four groups said. Mr Noel Barry from Right of Place in Cork said some solicitors in Munster had refused to represent victims for this fee. He said up to 70 per cent of victims did not understand the workings of the commission; Ms Justice Laffoy needed to explain it to them in common language.
Ms Buckley said two requests for meetings with Ms Justice Laffoy had been refused because the commission was now up and running, but the groups did not accept this.
She urged the commission to set aside a day to meet victims on their own, without lawyers or abusers.
The groups also want the commission to assure victims they will not lose compensation by participating in either of its public or private sittings and remove lawyers for abusers and perpetrating institutions from its investigative committee.
"We really feel that abusers should not be flanked by their lawyers. They didn't have them with them when they were torturing us," said Ms Buckley.
The commission is due to hold its third public sitting next month before beginning to hear the testimonies of survivors in private. It will do its work through two committees: an investigative committee which will be able to summon witnesses, request documents and make detailed findings; and a confidential committee for victims to recount their stories. Many hearings will be in private.