Hundreds of victims of sexual abuse in Irish industrial schools, who are now living in the UK, will have their social welfare payments cut once they receive compensation.
The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs will not take awards from the Residential Institutional Redress Board into account when means testing applicants here.
However, the same situation will not apply in the United Kingdom, the Federation of Irish Societies in the UK yesterday warned the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science.
"Without Irish ministerial intervention, it is very unlikely that the UK Department of Works and Pensions will agree to exemptions," said Cllr Sally Mulready, the federation's secretary.
"Unless there is serious representation from the Irish Government, it is unlikely that the necessary amendments will be made. Even at that, it may not change."
A survey carried out among members of a London-based group of industrial school victims showed that 80 per cent of them depend on means-tested benefits.
In a plea to the Oireachtas Committee, she said victims living in the UK "have special difficulties" and urgently need more help from the Irish Government.
"Many describe themselves as having 'run away' from Ireland. They have since endured years of enforced exile. They found it too difficult to return, because of the emotional distress it might evolve.," said Cllr Mulready.
Victims living abroad should have the legal right to council housing in Ireland, or at the very least "be given priority points", she told Fine Gael TD, Mr Michael Creed.
There is "a grave possibility" that some groups, such as the disabled, and women who spent time in the Magdalene Laundries, will be excluded from the compensation tribunal.
The London-Irish Women Survivors' Support Group said disabled people placed in orthopaedic hospitals by the Department of Health should be eligible to apply for compensation.
Other people, who claim they were abused by foster parents, are unsure if they can apply, said the support group's chairwoman, Ms Anne Keane.
Many people suffered "physical and psychological humiliation" rather than sexual abuse. "It subsequently affected them for the rest of their lives."
Counselling services for victims, available in London and Coventry, are due to be expanded into Sheffield and Manchester in the New Year.
"But we need more. The demand for these professional services is growing, but there are as yet not enough services throughout Britain to assist many survivors scattered all around the country," she said.
The chairperson of the Clonmel-based Right to Peace Group, Mr Michael O'Brien, made an impassioned plea for compensation for abuse victims. He gave a harrowing account of the punishments he suffered at the hands of priests at Ferry House Industrial School, Clonmel.
"I was caught across a bed naked, completely naked, and [STRUCK WITH] a strap that length and they didn't care where it landed. Why? Because they were getting sexual satisfaction out of it."
