Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move:

"That Dáil Éireann:

notes the comprehensive and substantive report on Magdalen Laundries completed by Senator Martin McAleese;

agrees that, given the evidence in the report, an apology should be given to the women of the Magdalen Laundries by the Taoiseach, on behalf of the Oireachtas and all citizens of the State, for what they had to endure; and

further agrees to the establishment of a dedicated unit within the Department of Justice and Equality to co-ordinate remaining aspects of the State's response including all forms of redress which should be provided."

In previous contributions relating to this matter I have acknowledged that the commissioning and publication of the McAleese report was a hugely important step on the part of the Government. I take this opportunity to again acknowledge that fact. It is, however, the aftermath of the publication of the report on which we must focus our attention and on the very less than adequate response on the part of the Government to what former Senator McAleese has outlined and to the testimonies of the survivors of the Magdalen Laundries, as provided by their various representative organisations, namely, Justice for the Magdalenes, Magdalene Survivors Together and the Irish Women's Survivors Support Network.

In order to fully understand and appreciate the horror experiences by those who spent time in any of the institutions to which I refer, people should read the testimonies of the survivors as well as the McAleese report. I wish to read into the record of the House, a quote from one of those testimonies. It reads:

When I went in ... of course, the first thing they did was cut my hair, took all my clothes. Told me I go by the name of Attracta, and I would be called by my number, 63, whenever they wanted me to do anything ... Then if you did anything wrong, you were put down in a hole. We used to call it the hole. It was a four by four room, but we called it the hole. There was nothing in it, only a bench - no windows. You were put in there; your hair was cut, more or less off completely. Your hair was cut, and you were there all day without anything to eat until they came down for you at five o'clock and took you up. Then you had to go into Sacred Heart room where the recreation was and kneel down in front of everybody in the room, kiss the floor and say you were sorry, and then the nun read the riot act to you.

I am sure none of us can imagine what it must have been like to undergo such an experience. I am also sure many of those who were in these institutions did not know why they were there in the first instance. I have no doubt that the memory of what they experienced lives on for these women. I believe the testimony from which I just quoted and I also believe the testimonies of those who outlined similar experiences.

The Government's amendment to the motion highlights a number of matters relating to the McAleese report and its findings and contains the first official acknowledgment of significant State involvement in the running of the laundries. The amendment highlights the fact that the report shows that the traditional stigmatising labels which were often attached to women in the Magdalen laundries were wholly unjustified; that the report acknowledges that women worked in the severe conditions for no pay; and that the report recognises that many women were not informed as to why they were admitted to the laundries, for how long they would be obliged to remain in them or when they could leave. Nobody will disagree with the findings contained in the report. Nobody can do so in light of the testimonies that have been provided for many years.

We are debating this matter because, on one hand, the Government has acknowledged and highlighted the horrific wrongs that were done but, on the other, it is having to be dragged - kicking and screaming - into making an apology and saying sorry. What we are seeking in this debate is for someone to use the five-letter word "Sorry".

I take this opportunity to acknowledge that Deputies McDonald and Maureen O'Sullivan, in particular, have played a strong role in highlighting this matter during the lifetime of the current Dáil. Many others have not done so. In the previous Dáil, former Deputy Tom Kitt and Deputy Ó Caoláin also highlighted this issue in equally strong terms.

As I prepared for this debate, I reflected on the contribution which I made last September to the debate on a motion tabled by Sinn Féin and in which I outlined my fears. At that time I stated that I had no doubt that former Senator McAleese would give the inquiry his full commitment. Dr. McAleese was an inspired choice to lead the inquiry. I have no doubt of the commitment of those in government who are working on this issue. However, I doubt the institutions of the State. When I hear reference to cross-departmental committees, I become worried because I am aware that the defensive mechanism which is in-built in the institutions of the State will kick in. There is some sort of innate inability to acknowledge the State's role in respect of this matter. We cannot acknowledge our debt to these women or admit or contemplate the fact that they and their families are still living the nightmare. The motion laid before the House last September put the machinery of the State on notice that this Oireachtas would not waver. As stated at that point, I am of the view that the Oireachtas has a moral mandate to deliver to these women and to account for the mistakes made by it and previous Administrations in refusing to acknowledge what was done to them.

The fears I expressed last September crystallised at 4 p.m. on Tuesday last in this Chamber. Those who survived the horror of institutions to which the motion before the House refers and are still living, the families of the women who have passed away, the many who have been forgotten, who have no families to defend them and whose interests are being looked after by the survivors' groups and the others who - as a result of the horror they experienced and the stigma they perceive to be attached to themselves - are still unable to admit to their loved ones that they were incarcerated in the laundries all woke up on Tuesday morning last hoping that their darkest hour was over and that dawn was about to break. They had participated, in all good faith, in a process that they believed - and were led to believe - would lead them to the beginning of a journey of personal redemption. Some of them travelled to Dublin in the hope that they would, having received a long-overdue apology, be able to engage in a little celebration on Tuesday evening. Many others did not travel to the capital because they lack the resources or the physical or mental ability to allow them to do so or because they now live far from Ireland. In this regard, I recall the woman described by Professor James M. Smith who woke in her bed-sit in New York last Tuesday morning and who waited to discover whether it would be her day.

However, on Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. the hopes were cruelly dashed as the faceless institutions of this State once again coalesced to destroy the dreams of these women as they had done previously while they were physically incarcerated.

I share a constituency with the Taoiseach. I know him to be very decent and caring, and that view is shared across the House. He has shown that in the Chamber on countless occasions, and he shows it on a daily basis. However, the statement he delivered on behalf of the Government and the Irish people in the aftermath of the publication of the McAleese report last Tuesday was amateur, heartless and unfair and, as a result, the physical incarceration of those women detailed in the report and in their testimonies continues in a mental way today. That is the reason we are here tonight and will be here tomorrow night. Whatever number of nights it takes, we will be here to demand justice. We are here as the elected voices of the people of Ireland to speak for the voiceless, the more than 10,000 women our predecessors incarcerated for reasons that were, in 99% of cases, unjustifiable. We are here as the faces of this State, those who went out and got a mandate, to stand up to the faceless people behind the scenes and behind the Government response and demand that they stand up for the voiceless and allow the women of the Magdalen laundries and other institutions to begin their journey of personal, physical and mental redemption.

Most importantly, we are here because we do not have time. These women do not have many years ahead of them to battle the State in courts or deal with their physical and mental issues. Many of them do not have the resources because their ability to earn a wage was affected by their time in those laundries. We do not have time. These women are coming to the end of their life's journey. They are physically infirm as a result of their experiences and they continue to suffer mentally. That is the reason that, as well as looking for an apology, we are proposing the establishment of a dedicated unit housed within the Department of Justice and Equality to begin co-ordinating a full State response on this area. There is no reason that could not have been established ahead of the publication of the report. There is no reason it could not have been established last Tuesday, because the Government recognises the wrongs that were done in its amendment. In the comments that followed the public outcry over the lack of an apology the Government recognised that wrongs were done, and if a wrong is done, one tries to repair it. To establish such a unit would in itself have been a statement of faith and a statement of intent.

That unit must examine many issues, but it must do so quickly. It must examine a health care response, because many of these women do not have the resources or the ability to access the health care they now require as a result of their time in these institutions. A social protection response is required, which will take time and must be detailed because there are pension issues and insurance issues as well as payments due from the laundries to these women. That must be got under way. There are physical and mental health issues that must be examined and dealt with.

Finally, we must consider an efficient and rapid system of redress, and not some long, combative process in which only the lawyer wins. There are models of fair processes available that respect dignity. The dignity that was robbed by this State can now be given back by saying one word, but that word must be followed up with practical responses. Everyone in the country needs to say one five-letter word that is seemingly impossible to say - "Sorry". It is seemingly impossible to acknowledge that the horrors outlined in the survivor testimonies, in the McAleese report and in the Government amendment were wrong. Reading the Government amendment - leaving aside the other two - one must say that what was done was wrong, and it was done by agents of the State. When one commits a wrong, one says "Sorry," but we still have to hear it.

Maisie has not heard it yet. She still suffers from nightmares 50 years on. In her dreams, she is locked in and cannot get out. She says she cannot believe it still haunts her at her age, but it never leaves her. Attracta has not heard it yet. Attracta says that she feels very bitter, and that Ireland has let her down. Her husband says she still cries at night and wakes up crying, and that it affected all of her life.

I will finish where I began. I acknowledge this was the first Government to bring all of this together and lay out the information. That was not done previously, and it is only fair that we acknowledge it this evening, but in commencing that process the Government created an expectation. The Government did not come cold to the full report last Tuesday. Dr. McAleese delivered it chapter by chapter to the Department, and information was available from Justice for the Magdalenes and from a range of institutions on the full implications of that report. Even if the Government had come cold to it last Tuesday morning the Taoiseach could have stood up here and said that he wanted to consider the report overnight and that he would come into the House the next morning and give a full response, and everybody would have agreed. That could have been done. He has shown, in the aftermath of the Cloyne report, that he can give a tough response very quickly. He could have done so here, but the way in which he dealt with the issue last Tuesday - I emphasise again that I do not make this criticism in any personal sense - extended the pain, misery and mental incarceration.

I gather an apology is on the way. That followed a range of meetings over the weekend and yesterday, and I gather those who were at the meeting yesterday felt it was worth their while to be there to give their stories to the Taoiseach. We will not get the apology until next week because it does not suit the Government to give it tonight. Why will it take two weeks for people who do not have two weeks?

I believe Maisie. I believe Attracta. I believe all the women. I can say I am sorry. I hope my Government is too, and I wish it would say it was.

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