Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“welcomes the publication of the final report of the inter-departmental committee chaired by former Senator Martin McAleese, which was set up by Government to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen laundries;

notes that: — the current Government was the first Government to take action on this important issue by commissioning the McAleese report;

— Government honoured its commitment to publish the McAleese report at the earliest opportunity in the interests of the women who were admitted to, and worked in, the Magdalen laundries run by the religious congregations and to facilitate the consultation with them which is now ongoing; and

— publication of the report itself has addressed a number of issues of major concern to the women concerned:

— it is the first time we have an authoritative account of the Magdalen laundries;

— it acknowledges for the first time significant State involvement in the Magdalen laundries;

— it demonstrates that for the first time they have been listened to and that their story has been believed, recorded and given official recognition to their stories and voices;

— it shows that the traditional stigmatising labels that were often attached to women who were in the Magdalen laundries were wholly unjustified;

— it acknowledges that women worked in the severe conditions for no pay, and records their memories of emotional and psychological abuse as well as the memories of some women of other ill treatment, and that their daily lives in the laundries had the imprint of a severe monastic structure where they were viewed as penitents; and

— it recognises that many women were not informed of why they were admitted to the laundries, for how long they had to stay there, and when they could leave;

further notes that the McAleese report runs to over 1,100 pages, and tells a complex story spanning decades since the establishment of the State and onwards, that it is the result of an unprecedented trawl of State records and that much of the information in the report has never previously been made public;

further welcomes: — the publication of the McAleese report and that the women and their representative groups have been given time and space, as a matter of fairness, to reflect fully on the substance of the report; and

— the fact that the Taoiseach and Tánaiste continue to meet with as many of the women as is practicable, so that their stories can be heard and their views can be taken into account;notes that: — Government’s major concern is to contribute to a healing and reconciliation process with a view to bringing closure for the women concerned and that the women deserve the best supports that the State can provide; and

— the report will be fully debated in the Dáil next week; and expresses confidence that, after having met with as many of the women concerned as possible and having listened to their views, the Taoiseach will respond to the significant issues identified in, and arising from, the McAleese report, with a view to a resolution of all issues ina fair and compassionate way.

With regard to the last contribution, I wonder how many people did know what was happening.

As a child growing up if one did anything out of the way, one was threatened with being sent to one of these institutions, so it always strikes me as incredible that people did not know what was happening. There was more knowledge than people are prepared to admit.

I am here today on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, to address the motion before the House. The Minister regrets his absence this evening which is due to his presiding as Minister for Defence over the EU Council of Defence Ministers meeting at Dublin Castle on foot of our EU Presidency responsibilities. As someone committed over a number of years to getting at the truth of the issues surrounding the Magdalen laundries, the Minister would have very much liked to contribute to this evening's debate. He has assured me that he will be here tomorrow evening and will contribute then.

Due to the Government's concern that the full story of the Magdalen laundries should be known, the Minister and I undertook shortly after taking office the necessary preparatory work to propose to Cabinet the terms of reference for a fact-finding committee on this issue. We proposed former Senator Martin McAleese as the committee's independent chairperson. It was the Government's commitment to addressing this longstanding and serious issue that resulted in it the taking of these steps. The Government fully supported the establishment of the committee. Last week, the Minister announced Government approval for the publication of the final report of the interdepartmental committee, independently chaired by former Senator Martin McAleese, to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen laundries. The report is extensive and detailed and runs to over 1,200 pages. It spans the decades from the establishment of the State onwards.

Early in his introduction to the report, former Senator McAleese states in what are telling words:

Many of the women who met with the committee - and particularly those who entered the Magdalen laundries as young girls - experienced the laundries as lonely and frightening places. For too long, they have been and have felt forgotten.

That is one of the great tragedies of the Magdalen laundries. We must acknowledge that the hurt that many women felt during their time there was exacerbated by the failure of others over many years to listen to their stories or to seek out the truth of what happened to them.

The decision by the Government to establish a committee to look at the issue of the State's involvement with the Magdalen laundries was a clear recognition that that failure had to be addressed and the truth had to be found. Indeed, when the truth was found, it had to be told. I suspect the last thing any of the women who were admitted to and worked in the laundries need is for their plight to become a matter for political point scoring in the House. It is therefore a matter for regret that Fianna Fáil put down this motion in the full knowledge that the House was due to debate the report shortly after the Government had an opportunity to devise a comprehensive response having considered it fully and spoken to the women directly concerned. People can judge for themselves the fact that Members opposite are condemning the Government for failing to do in hours what they themselves chose not to do during 14 years in government. There was one honourable exception in Fianna Fáil, former Deputy Tom Kitt. I feel I need to say that.

The Government received the report last Tuesday and was briefed by Dr. Martin McAleese on it. One option was to delay publication of the report until we had time to consider it fully but in fairness to those who were admitted to and worked in the Magdalen laundries, it was decided that it should be published immediately. The Government indicated that it needed a short time to formulate a detailed response and suggested, against that background, that it be debated in the House within two weeks of its publication. It would have represented a great disservice both to the women affected and to Dr. Martin McAleese if we had attempted to respond comprehensively in hours to a complex report running, as I have said, to over 1,200 pages. Whatever the portrayal of that approach in the meantime, we adopted it solely to do the right thing by those who were admitted to and worked in the laundries.

I listened with interest last week to contributions from across the House regarding the Magdalen laundries. I have had an involvement with the issues of women who were admitted to and worked in the laundries for more than ten years. I visited with them in the United Kingdom on a regular basis - most recently in December 2012 - and tried to offer what advice and support I could. I recall a particular meeting in 2003 at the Lazy Daisy café in Notting Hill where a number of concerns were expressed on the provision of services to Irish victims of abuse now living in the United Kingdom. I wrote to the then Minister for Education and Science in November 2003 to outline the simple and reasonable requests of those people. A great deal could have been done to improve their circumstances. These were straightforward matters such as the extension of a free-phone helpline to the United Kingdom, updates in the form of a newsletter, the provision of a fax and computer, the right to choose one's own counsellor or therapist given the somewhat incredible proposal that nuns and other clergy would be involved in providing counselling, assistance with a telephone, a speedier response to queries and a comprehensive media information campaign which could reach these very scattered people.

All of the requests were met with deafening silence by successive Fianna Fáil Governments. As such, I find the hypocrisy of the motion galling. I quote from a letter I received yesterday from Councillor Sally Mulready on behalf of the Irish Women Survivors Support Network. The network represents the largest group of women that met with the McAleese committee. In the letter, the network commended the work of the committee and Sally Mulready went on to say:

On a political level, I find it mildly surprising that the main Opposition party Leader can without shame and with significant amnesia express his disappointment at the failure of the State to apologise over the State's culpability. The Opposition party were in government for 14 years and throughout kept people like me away, refused to listen and blocked our path at every turn. Now in opposition and on behalf of his party the Opposition Leader rushes to accuse others. I think Mr. Micheál Martin TD should reflect on the years and years of misery and rejection they inflicted on the women by refusing all communication with us. The women as a consequence remained out in the wilderness for years trying to find a path to justice. I am afraid his apology is hollow.

For 14 years, the Fianna Fáil-led Government chose to neglect completely the tragedy of the Magdalen laundries. The Irish Women Survivors Support Network and others were stone­walled and fobbed off for years when all they wanted was recognition and an acknowledgement of the wrong done to them. The current Government acted quickly to set up an inter-departmental committee chaired by former Senator Martin McAleese and we are currently reflecting on the contents of the report of that committee. It is a bit rich for Fianna Fáil to adopt a holier-than-thou stance when it had every opportunity to act on the matter but deliberately chose to do nothing. Perhaps Deputy Micheál Martin or another Fianna Fáil Deputy might answer the simple question of why they choose to do nothing. I was also interested to note the contributions in the last week from Sinn Féin. It seems the party has come very late to this issue as I see no mention of the Magdalen laundries on their website prior to May 2011. Sinn Féin's actions seem to be an effort to score political points. I appeal to them not to make a political football of this issue and to allow appropriate time and space for the matter to be properly debated.

It should be absolutely clear that there is no hesitation on the part of the Government in making a considered and appropriate response to this report. We will try to do this in a way that recognises the full complexities of the issues that arise and meets insofar as possible the needs of the women who worked there. That is what justice demands. That is why we sought a short time to prepare a comprehensive response to the report. It is also the reason that before finalising such a response, we want to listen to the women concerned. We would have been rightly criticised in the House for any response to the report which was produced in a short period of time. Given the length and complexity of the report, it is understandable that much of the instant comment in the wake of its publication was not based on a full reading. I thank and applaud the bravery of the women who came forward to tell the stories of their experiences in the Magdalen laundries and of the effect on their lives. There was nothing new in it for me. I had heard it before and every time I hear it again, I continue to be horrified.

Like the Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter, I hope publication of the report and the recognition of their experiences will be of some comfort to the women involved and possibly even help to bring some closure on what they endured. I thank Dr. Martin McAleese for chairing the committee.

As the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, said last week, Dr. McAleese brought integrity and independence to this process and was instrumental in having the full co-operation of all the State agencies involved, the religious congregations, the representative and advocacy groups, and most importantly the women who were admitted to and worked in the Magdalen laundries. There is no doubt but that independence and integrity were crucial in bringing together for the first time all that we now know about the laundries and how they operated going back to the foundation of this State.

As the Minister said last week, the report tells a very complex story, spanning the decades from the establishment of the State onwards. We now know that approximately 10,000 women entered Magdalen laundries since 1922, through a whole range of different routes. These included State referrals as well as placements of girls and women in the Magdalen laundries by many others, including significant numbers of families. We now also know that just over 60% of these women spent one year or less in the laundries. I hope that publication of this report will be of comfort to those and all other women directly concerned. I appreciate that many women have felt shame or lived their lives under a cloud because of the stigma that attached to their time in the Magdalen laundries, irrespective of the circumstances which resulted in their admission and regardless of how much time they spent there. This stigma was undeserved and its removal is long overdue. The committee's report clearly illustrates that the stigma derives from misconceptions relating to how women came to be in the laundries. Let me be absolutely clear that the issues raised by or on behalf of those women who spent time in the Magdalen laundries will be addressed by the Government. The Minister has in the past met with many of these women, as have I, and has the greatest respect for the dignity and courage they have shown. He wants to help and has long believed that this issue must be addressed. He has campaigned for a long time for the full story of the Magdalen Laundries to be told and he and I were instrumental in establishing this committee. To that end, this Government - unlike previous Governments - put this process in place. The work of Dr. McAleese's interdepartmental committee obtained the co-operation of everyone involved, State agencies, religious congregations, representative and advocacy groups which have done Trojan work in this area, and the women who entered and worked in these institutions. Their voices have to be at the centre of all this. In light of the McAleese report, the Government wishes to explore what should and can now be done to address the issues raised. For the first time in the history of this State, we now know what happened in these institutions and we are addressing the issues. Make no mistake about it we will see this through. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste met with some of the women yesterday and we are taking their views into account.

These women deserve the chance to share their experiences and views directly before the Government makes a decision on the most appropriate way to resolve the many issues identified in and arising from the McAleese report. They are being listened to and indeed one cannot but be impressed by their dignity and courage, shown so evidently in the last few days. There will be a full debate in this House next week and, pending that debate, the report will continue to be given full consideration by Members of Cabinet. For that reason I commend the Government amendment to the House.

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