A FORMAL apology will be made to the victims of abuse in Northern Ireland’s religious and state-run institutions.
First and deputy first ministers Paul Givan and Michelle O’Neill will give the apology from Stormont on March 11.
A state apology was among the recommendations in the final report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA), which investigated 22 institutions across Northern Ireland from 1922-1995 and found there had been widespread and systemic abuse within them.
That report, led by Chairman of the HIA, Sir Anthony Hart, was published five years ago in 2017.
It also recommended a financial redress scheme to compensate victims, which has already been set up, and called for a memorial to be erected in their memory, which is not yet in place.
On Thursday, January 20, the fifth anniversary of the release of the Hart Report, First Minister, Mr Givan confirmed the date they will deliver the apology.
He added: “Our priority remains approaching an apology with care and sensitivity and basing it upon the experience of victims and survivors.
“We hope that a public apology will be seen as a valued means for acknowledging harm for victims and survivors of abuse, and for our society as a whole.”
Deputy First Minister, Ms O'Neill said: “Historical institutional abuse should never have happened.
“While no apology will make up for the shameful failures, and the pain that victims and survivors have endured as a result, we owe it to them to acknowledge the harm they suffered.”
She added: “We recognise that there are many different views on the public apology.
“We are announcing the date in advance as we want victims and survivors to have an opportunity to tell us their views on the arrangements and content of the apology.
“This apology will be an important moment, but we understand it will be an incredibly difficult and emotional day for many.”
The apology will be broadcast live from Parliament Buildings in Stormont on March 11.
Representatives of state and religious institutions found by the Hart inquiry to have been responsible for the abuse, will also make statements on the day.
Responding to the announcement, SDLP MLA Sinéad McLaughlin claimed the Northern Ireland Executive should also apologise for the delay in making the apology.
“It is deeply regrettable that it has taken five years from the publication of the Hart Report for victims and survivors of institutional abuse to finally be given a date for their formal apology,” she said.
“These recommendations were made in 2017 and if the Executive hadn’t been collapsed and kept from being restored this apology and the other HIA recommendations could have been implemented years ago. It’s shameful that victims and survivors were casualties of the political dysfunction that rules this place.”
She added: “In the time since the Hart Report was published a number of victims and survivors have sadly died – they will never get their apology and my thoughts are with their families today.
“We must see a full and unequivocal apology not just from the Joint First Ministers, but the institutions who perpetrated this abuse.
“They should all also be apologising for the delay in giving the apology and compensation to victims.”
Members of the NI Executive will meet with survivors over the coming the weeks, ahead of the apology being made.
