The Spiritan Order has been accused of further traumatising victims and survivors of child sex abuse, by failing to implement the Independent Restorative Justice Framework it announced three years ago.
The advocacy group Restore Together which represents many of victims/survivors of Dublin's Blackrock College and Willow Park School, Rockwell College, St Mary's College, St Michael’s College and Templeogue College, has pointed to a lack of urgency by the order in completing the programme.
The Spiritan Restorative Justice Framework has six elements including an apology, therapy, testimony (truth telling), redress, memorialisation and restorative justice.
Just half of those have been activated in full according to Restore Together.
The redress scheme and the truth searching process - to help the Spiritans and Irish society learn from the abuse scandal - has yet to be agreed and started.
The last element (physical and other forms of memorialisation at Spiritan schools), will not be implemented until the other elements are activated and progressed.
The restorative framework, which is independently managed, has the potential to be a ground-breaking development in Irish social justice if fully implemented, according to the group.
It has described it as "progressively designed" to address the traumas of abuse in a holistic, collaborative and non-adversarial manner, to help people to heal and get justice, and to rebalance the power between victim and perpetrator.
In a statement it said there was "no excuse" for not having all six elements implemented by now.
Spokesperson Philip Freddis said the group "can't get a meeting" to discuss the status of the redress scheme and the other elements of the framework.
He pointed out that those suffering are mainly in their 60s or older, "so we are deep into overtime".
It acknowledged that the pace of putting the necessary framework for "overhauling and restructuring the assets of the Province" had been slow.
It expressed hope that "a more detailed update of progress" would be issued by the end of the summer.
Mr Freddis said the full Restorative Justice Framework "must be delivered in a timely way" or its benefit would be "diluted or even lost" if people had to wait and fight for every element of it.
"Why after all these years, is there a lack of urgency and why must we be made to appeal, plead, fight and ultimately wait for justice like this?
"We can only conclude that there is a lack of understanding, empathy and prioritisation by the Spiritans for their victims/survivors," he said.
