Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

Sensitivity and care must be employed when engaging with anyone attempting to seek assistance under the statutory fund Bill. As has been stated in the past, no one wishes to see any individual deprived of his or her rights and consideration should be given to Deputy Brendan Smith's proposal that the Government incorporate into the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill the residual functions of the redress board. Incorporating such a provision would provide a mechanism in order that the work of the redress board could be activated again should new applicants who meet the criteria arise. This would be one way to safeguard the rights of those who are entitled to redress but who have been unable to access it.

I will conclude by highlighting the plight of women and children who were placed in the Magdalene laundries and in Bethany Home, as well as the shameful refusal of the Government to provide any meaningful assistance to the victims of these institutions. One year after the United Nations Committee against Torture recommendations that the Magdalene survivors receive a formal apology from the State and proper redress, a soon-to-be-published interdepartmental report into the laundry no doubt will tell one what one already knows, namely, the women held in such institutions suffered the most degrading and appalling treatment and deprivation imaginable under the State's watch. As the Justice for Magdalenes group recently reported in testimony gathered from survivors, inmates could not leave the laundries, the doors were locked and the windows were inaccessible. Moreover, if they did try to leave, they were returned by the Garda while others decided not to try to escape because they knew the same fate awaited them. Every single survivor confirmed they were never paid, that no inspections ever were carried out and no Government official ever came to check them out.

The irrefutable evidence of what was inflicted on the Magdalene women led to a statement made in this Chamber in 2010 by the current Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. She rightly stated that former residents of the Magdalene laundries and Bethany Home must be included in the redress scheme. She went on to state, correctly, that these institutions were, to all intents and purposes, places of detention and that residents had been held by the State for often indeterminate periods of confinement. Her justifiable outrage at the then Government's failure to address properly this matter was echoed by another Labour Party Member, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, who in 2005 correctly identified the scandal of Bethany Home as a matter of national importance. Likewise, her party colleague, Deputy Costello, called on the Government of the day to include Bethany Home in a redress scheme. To their credit, all three of the aforementioned Labour Party Deputies regularly highlighted this important issue. However, now they are in government and in a position to right this terrible wrong inflicted on the survivors of Magdalene laundries and Bethany Home, will they live up to their previous contributions in this House? By contrast, the campaigns of the survivors of both the Magdalene laundries and Bethany Home have helped to bring irrefutable evidence of State involvement into the public domain. It is time for Fine Gael and Labour Party Ministers to step up to their worthy words by offering up an apology, redress and restitution for these now elderly men and women. The Government's inaction in respect of both these matters is nothing short of shameful to date and until the Government acts on its own words, its members will be no better than those of previous Governments or of those who caused the hurt in the first instance.

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