Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First of all, I want to thank Senator Martin McAleese, his assistant Ms Nuala Ní Mhuircheartaigh and the team involved in putting together the McAleese report into the Magdalen laundries. It is important to note that it was only in July last year that this Government initiated action to have such a report compiled and produced.

Clearly, Deputy McDonald has not yet had an opportunity to read this report. The 1,000-page report deals with the facts, as was the mandate given to Senator McAleese and his group. It deals with them in a way that is very different from the impression that many people might have of what happened. The number of people involved was not 30,000 but 10,012. The number of known admission from 1922 onwards was 14,607 which clearly meant that a number of women re-entered the Magdalen laundries on a number of occasions.

The admissions for which routes of entry are known are stipulated in the report at 8,025. The number of those referrals that were made, or facilitated, by the State was 2,124 or 26.5%. The average age at the time of entry was 23. The median age at the time of entry was 20. The age of the youngest known entrant was nine, while the age of the oldest known entrant was 89. Some 35.6% were there for less than three months, and 47% for less than six months. Some 61% were there for less than a year and 68% for less than 18 months.

I suggest that we need to absorb this report and reflect on its findings. It is 1,000 pages long so I suggest that we should take the opportunity to have a Dáil debate on this matter in two weeks' time. In the interim people will have had time to read it, reflect upon it and understand its findings.

The overriding requirement, as identified by Senator McAleese and his team, was to deal with the stigma attached to those who worked in Magdalen laundries and stayed in the accommodation there. It is important to recognise that in many ways Ireland in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s was a harsh, uncompromising and authoritarian country. That is reflected in the stories of the women who had the courage to come forward and say their piece.

It is clear from the report that there is no evidence of sexual abuse in the Magdalen laundries. There is one reported case of abuse by one resident on another. The stigma of branding together all 10,000 residents in the Magdalen laundries needs to be removed and should have been removed long before this. I really am sorry, and I regret, that that never happened. I am conscious, however, of the clarity of this report by Senator McAleese and his team.

Residents went into the Magdalen laundries through a variety of ways. Some 26% of them did so through State intervention or State involvement. I am sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment. We have seen what happened to the women who underwent symphysiotomies, or Thalidomide victims, or those who were in mental hospitals - or lunatic asylums as they were referred to in those days - or many other places.

I admire the courage of those women for speaking out to Senator McAleese. I advise Deputy McDonald to read the report carefully because there is material there that has never been seen by the public. In putting this report together, Senator McAleese has had access to information, including the financial accounts of the sisters, religious orders and the laundries. The report has been well worthwhile producing and I am grateful to Senator McAleese for so doing.

I am sorry that this release of pressure by, and understanding of, so many of these women was not done before now. They were branded as fallen women and were often referred to as such in this State. It was not until July 2011 that the initiative was taken by the Government to deal with this matter in a comprehensive way. I want to see that those women who are still with us - I understand there are between 800 and 1,000 - are provided by the State with the best facilities and supports they need in their lives.

The report is comprehensive and detailed, and the statistics speak for themselves. Far from jumping to conclusions, everybody should read this report carefully and reflect on it deeply. It refers to an Ireland which was a very hostile environment in the far off past. These women who came forward with their testimonies to Senator McAleese spoke with courage of their involvement in, and the routes they took to, the Magdalen laundries. We should treat this report with a measure of calmness and consideration, which it deserves. We should return in two weeks to debate it in the Oireachtas.

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