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A Stormont committee meeting discussing institutional childhood abuse was halted on Wednesday after not enough MLAs attended.

The Commissioner for Survivors of Institutional Abuse, Fiona Ryan, had been due to update members on her work.

However, with three MLAs in attendance, a quorum for the meeting could not be reached and it was postponed.

Ms Ryan said victims' groups had told her the development had caused "deep hurt".

"If you had to sum this up, missed opportunity would be the term that you would apply," she told Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú News NI on Thursday.

"For many of [the victims] it's a reminder of how they've been treated their whole life.

"Their pain, their anguish, their experience going unacknowledged and being minimised."

The lack of progress at the meeting was described as "shameful" and "humiliating" for victims by the campaign group Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia).

"Totally unacceptable behaviour from highly-paid MLAs," the group posted on Twitter.

Ms Ryan said she acknowledged the apology issued by Executive Office Committee chair Sinead McLaughlin.

"I think the fact that the committee has issued an apology and is, as I understand, looking actively to reconvene this meeting will go some way to actually ameliorating what happened yesterday," she added.

Later on Thursday, Ms McLaughlin, an SDLP MLA, said the committee members would reconvene for a briefing from Ms Ryan on Friday morning.

"I spent the evening speaking with victims and it was very clear they had been deeply hurt by what happened," said Ms McLaughlin.

"No MLA should ever contribute to the negative experience of victims and it's deeply regrettable this was the case.

"This whole sorry episode highlights the need for greater care and sensitivity from our MLAs when carrying out their duties.

"I know Christmas is nearly upon us and we all have extremely busy constituency offices but MLAs must remain fully engaged with our full breadth of duties and our committee responsibilities."