It was not a Court of Law therefore you can't compare a Criminal Case for Rape with these hearing. The hearings were stated in advance to be amongst other things "as informal as possible" and the number of people in the room were stated to be "up to 3" being the Judge, a Stenographer and a Councellor I believe, but in fact this did not materialise from the reports given recently in the Media by those who went to the Redress Board. If you are unsure as to the proposed proceedures at the redress board I suggest you read up on them on their official site
www.rirb.ie, it would help you reach a more informed opinion. The Victims had to give up a lot in order to take part in this proceedure, its shameful how they were treated.