Two religious orders have told the Commission To Inquire Into Child Abuse that complaints and inquiries from former residents increased substantially after the apology by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to the victims of institutional abuse.
Representatives of the Good Shepherd Sisters and Presentation Brothers said that allegations of abuse began around the mid-1990s.
However, the representatives said the allegations increased after Mr Ahern’s apology in 1999 and the announcement of the establishment of a compensation body in 2000.
Earlier, the head of the Sisters of Mercy congregation told the commission that allegations of abuse against the order ‘hit them like a tidal wave they were unprepared for’.
Sister Breege O'Neill said the order first became aware of abuse allegations through the publication of two books in the mid-1990s.
However, Sr O’Neill said it was the screening of the television documentary Dear Daughter that had the biggest impact on the order.
Sr O’Neill said the congregation went through shock and denial and the allegations shattered the vision many members of the order had of their involvement in caring for children.
The allegations led to numerous requests from former residents for records, but Sr O’Neill said that these records were not available for some time because of the structure of the order.
The delay in locating records was perceived by some, Sr O’Neill said, as the order's unwillingness to give out records, but she said that this was not the case.
Sr O’Neill also said an apology issued by the order in 1996 was not successful, as it was perceived by some as conditional and incomplete.
The instigation of legal proceedings against the order also changed how it could communicate with former residents of children's homes, Sr O’Neill said.
