Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

For most people the term "slavery" conjures up images of slave ships crossing the Atlantic between Africa and the Americas.

What went on in the Magdalen laundries in this State, however, was a very Irish form of slavery. We know that it continued from the foundation of this State until 1996. An estimated 30,000 women were detained in these laundries, which were run by Catholic religious orders. The State failed these women comprehensively. Religious orders used these girls and women as unpaid labour. Women incarcerated in these institutions worked for no pay, whilst the orders ran the laundries on a commercial basis in brutally harsh conditions. Those who tried to escape and were apprehended by gardaí were returned to the institutions.

Disgracefully, the Magdalen women were excluded by the State from the 2002 residential institutions redress scheme. In May 2011, the Government - represented by the then Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality, Mr. Seán Aylward - appeared before the UN Committee Against Torture. At that time, the State claimed that the laundries were private institutions, that they were voluntarily occupied and that they were outside the scope of State responsibility, bar one exception. They persisted in this lie that nothing was known about the enslavement and brutality experienced by women in these institutions.

I very much welcome, at last, today's publication of the interdepartmental committee's report on the Magdalen institutions. That report underlines the fact that there was substantial State involvement in these laundries and substantial State negligence in the duty of care to these women. Therefore, the women have been vindicated. After all, they told the truth which is that the State failed them. When does the Taoiseach propose to offer - on behalf of all of us and of the State - a full apology to these women?

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