Redress Board to go to UK for abuse victim's testimony

The Residential Institutions Redress Board has agreed to send a four-person team to Coventry to hear the testimony of a former institution resident who has terminal cancer.

This marks a reversal of an earlier board decision not totravel to hear the evidence of Mr Michael Clifford. Mr Clifford, (48), who was recently diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer, was to fly to Dublin from the UK this morning after a request that he give evidence before the Redress Board by video link was ignored.

The Redress Board originally claimed that sending a team to Britain was outside its remit and had refused to do so when a letter was sent by Mr Michael Clifford's doctor on the 17th of October to inform them he was too sick to travel.

The chairman, Justice Sean O'Leary informed the man's brother Mr Barry Clifford (47) this afternoon that the board would, in fact, send a team to Coventry to hear Mr Clifford's evidence.

The four-person team will fly with Mr Barry Clifford tonight when they will hear his brother's evidence pending his state of health.

Speaking to ireland.com,Mr Barry Clifford said his brother is "determined to keep well for the interview".

He called the board's treatment of his brother's case "callous" and "sad", and added the board's handling of the case was a "farce from beginning to end".

When contacted a spokeswoman for the board said it declined to comment on individual cases.

Mr Michael Clifford has alleged he was physically abused while at St Joseph's industrial school in Galway and that he was improperly referred to a mental hospital from there.

Mr Barry Clifford is also seeking compensation from the board following alleged physical and sexual abuse at St Joseph's.