Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I fully support what has been said about the Magdalene women. We must find a means to address the situation, whether by extending the Residential Institutions Redress Board, or by a new mechanism. This is a live issue. For example, there are ten women in the Magdalene convent in Seán McDermott Street who will be moved against their will by 1 January to new accommodation. They have been there for between 30 and 50 years. These are extremely elderly women and we have done nothing as a nation to deal with them. It is about time that we did. It is an important issue to debate in this House. On this last day of the session before Christmas, it would be great to get a commitment from the Taoiseach that something substantial would be done by way of legislation to deal with this matter.

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