Jon McCourt of North Survivors group
Jon McCourt, a former child resident of Termonbacca Boys Home in the city, said draft legislation ensuring compensation for those harmed over many decades in residential homes run by the state and members of religious orders could be carried forward into the next Westminster session.
It may not become law before Parliament’s suspension in September.
Mr McCourt said he would be writing to parliamentarians urging them to agree to pursue the matter further.
“I think at this point, until it goes down, I won’t write it off.
“It is like the carrot and the stick then the stick grows longer.”
He said unfinished legislation could be carried forward on an exceptional basis.
Margaret McGuckin, from victims’ group Savia, believed Secretary of State Julian Smith had been seeking a slot in early autumn to bring forward a draft law.
She said the Government could authorise interim payments to survivors without further parliamentary process.
Former senior judge Sir Anthony Hart held one of the UK’s biggest public inquiries into child abuse from a disused courthouse in Banbridge, Co Down.
He recommended compensation and a series of other measures after investigating decades of physical, sexual and emotional abuse at residential homes run by clergy and the state.
Former British Secretary of State Karen Bradley had been accused by victims of sitting on her hands and failing to push their case through Parliament.
Some of those who gave evidence at the HIA inquiry have already died, while others are elderly and in failing health.
