Abuse Survivors Gather In The City To Urge The Govt To Unlock The Redress Scheme

Friday, 17 November 2017 15:19

A group of survivors of child sexual abuse in day schools have accused the Government of inaction following Louise O'Keeffe's victory in the European Court of Human Rights.

Louise, who was abused by a teacher at Dunderrow school in the 1970's, recorded a victory in 2014 when the Irish State was found to be liable for failing to put measures in place to protect children for sexual abuse in school.

After her victory a Department of Education scheme was set up which would see abuse survivors qualify for compensation where it is shown that the school authorities failed to take action to a complaint of abuse.

However survivors says the "prior complaint" element of the redress scheme puts the onus on each survivor to prove that a previous complaint existed against their abuser.

John Allen of VOCADS, a survivor of child abuse, told RedFM News that he's to travel to Brussels to repeat his call on the Government to remove the obstacles to the redress scheme.