Three more centres for Irish victims

Three new resource centres have been set up for victims of
institutional child abuse in Ireland who now live in England.

The Irish Survivors Outreach Service has opened centres in the
London Borough of Haringey, Sheffield and Manchester because
existing centres at Camden, in London, and Coventry had become
inundated with calls.

Funded by the Irish government, the service offers free and
confidential advice and support for people who were abused as
children while living in orphanages and religious institutions in
Ireland between the 1930s and 1970s.

The new centres expect to receive thousands of contacts from Irish
people who migrated to the UK to live and work. It is estimated
there are as many as 12,000 potential service users in London
alone.

The centres can provide counselling to those who were abused and
help them seek compensation under the Residential Institutions
Redress Act, which the Irish government introduced in January.
Assistance in obtaining records and tracing relatives is also
offered, as is general advice on housing, health and welfare
issues.

John O’Donovan, outreach worker at Haringey, said the service had
already been contacted by 40 people, including two now living in
Australia and America.

The Irish government has set a deadline of 2005 for people to apply
for compensation.