Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this motion. Although I agree broadly with our response and our amendment to it, what is glaringly obvious to me and, I assume, to every other Member of the House, is the omission of an apology. I acknowledge the steps the Government has taken since last year's recommendation and I recognise and admire the work being undertaken by Senator Martin McAleese's interdepartmental committee, which was established to clarify the extent of State involvement in the laundries. We certainly do not call for it to stop. We want its work speeded up. However, it is clear to me there is enough evidence of State involvement in the Magdalene laundries for the Government to issue an apology.

A piece in The Irish Times today really struck me:

No apology, no pension, no lost wages, no redress and no acknowledgment that what had happened to them was wrong. A population of Irish women, aging and elderly, living at home and abroad, many vulnerable and marginalised, are all left waiting as time slips by.

It is an indisputable fact that three years after the Justice for Magdalenes group circulated an apology and proposed a redress scheme for survivors of the laundries, 22 months after the Irish Human Rights Commission called for a statutory inquiry into the alleged abuses and the provision of redress in appropriate cases, and 15 months after the UN Committee against Torture obliged the State to ensure that within one year survivors would obtain redress, the women at the centre of this debate find themselves in exactly the same position as they were when it started.

This week every Deputy and Senator in the Oireachtas received a redacted copy of the Justice for Magdalenes' recent principal submission to the interdepartmental committee investigating the State's involvement with the laundries. This involvement documents overwhelming and irrefutable evidence of State complicity in the abuses experienced by young girls and women in these institutions. I hope the pending final report on the issue by the interdepartmental committee will offer an even more complete picture of the involvement of this State.

In the testimonies gathered, survivors have testified they could not leave the laundries, that doors were locked and windows inaccessible. If they did try to leave they were returned by gardaí. Others decided not to try to escape because they knew the same fate awaited them. They could not complain and, in most cases, they remarked there was no one to whom they could complain in any case. Others begged to leave, often daily, but were always refused. Every survivor has confirmed they were never paid, that no inspections were ever carried out and that no Government official ever came to check on them. These women have been let down all their lives and I sincerely hope they will not be let down again. I urge that the report of the interdepartmental committee be published with all haste and that we issue the strongest and most sincere apology that can be offered on behalf of the State to these women.

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