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

In his response the Taoiseach has set out every reason as to why he should apologise. He believes the women and he recognises the wrong done to them. The report itself confirms, yet again, State complicity in that wrongdoing. The Taoiseach knows all of this and yet he refuses to apologise. I think that is extremely cruel of him. I think it is extremely cruel to the Magdalen women who yesterday expected that their story would be fully validated and that the Taoiseach would move to remove that awful stigma with which they have lived - by putting up our hands, collectively, and by the State putting up its hands and saying: "You were wronged. We were negligent."

I have to wonder as to the real motivation for the Taoiseach's failure to apologise, given that he believes the women's account and that he tells us that he understands their distress. I hope his version of responsible government is not one that simply seeks to circle the wagons to protect the State from any financial liability that might arise and to simply cast the women's experiences to one side. That would not be a very palatable version of responsible government not just for the women, but for citizens right across this country who are watching in horror as they hear of yet another story of brutalisation within institutions and of the State's relationship with those institutions and the State's stubbornness in refusing to face, head on, its responsibilities to the victims.

The Taoiseach needs to make the apology. He is clearly not going to make it in the House this morning, so this is the second disappointment for everybody concerned. I ask him to indicate to us whether, at any point, he intends to give a full State apology.

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