Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today is a very important day for former residents of the Magdalen laundries. It is the day the Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, acknowledged their hurt and apologised for their suffering as a result of their being admitted to and working in a Magdalen laundry and the stigma many of them have felt throughout their lives. It is the day the State acknowledged the extent to which time spent in the laundries tragically blighted the lives of so many, and it is the day the State is finally opening its heart and accepting its moral duty to those who felt abandoned and lost and believed they had no future.

Dr. McAleese, in the introduction to his report, says that, for many years, the chronicle of the laundries was characterised by secrecy, silence and shame and, therefore, I express my deep gratitude to the women of the Magdalen laundries who began a journey a long time ago to have the truth of what happened told and acknowledged. There must have been times on that journey when they wondered if it was ever going to end, if indifference and evasion were the only responses they would receive. With courage and tenacity, they persisted. Due to their efforts, the veil of secrecy surrounding the laundries has at long last been lifted and it can never be replaced.

This is not a day for recriminations about past failures to respond to these women's quest to establish the truth. I merely want to record that, upon my appointment as Minister for Justice and Equality, I was determined our Government would address the wrong done to those consigned to the Magdalen laundries and determined to see this day come. We will all accept that the work done by Dr. McAleese and all those who assisted him has been vital in allowing us to get where we are today. I am deeply grateful that he accepted my invitation to head a committee that would, once and for all, establish the truth of the State's involvement in the laundries. As I said in the House last week, I am personally grateful for the calm compassion with which he approached his task. I undertook in the House that we would publish the report once we had it and then consider our response. That is what the past fortnight has been about. We owed it to the women concerned to read and fully understand this story before responding and meeting them.

While today is primarily about acknowledging and seeking to make amends for the hurt experienced by the extraordinary women, some of whom I am pleased are with us this evening, we would do a great disservice to ourselves and to future generations if we did not try to learn lessons from what happened. For decades, our society was prepared to use institutions, including but not limited to the Magdalen laundries, to deal with a host of problems and perceived problems. Apart from the girls and women placed in the laundries by the State, the range of purposes for which society used the Magdalen laundries can also be seen in the report - some were young girls rejected by their foster parents when maintenance from the authorities ceased; some were young women who had been orphaned or who were in abusive or neglectful homes; others were women with either mental or physical disabilities; others still were simply poor or homeless; and many girls and women were placed in the laundries by their own families for reasons that we may never know or fully understand but which the report indicates "included the socio-moral attitudes of the time as well as familial abuse".

The women's accounts, as cited in the report, describe the laundries as cold, harsh and lonely places. Sadly, this reflects a truth we must all recognise: that Ireland itself, for many decades, could be a cold and harsh place for the vulnerable among us. That is not for a moment to suggest that what went on in the laundries was acceptable or to minimise what was endured by girls and women there but if we are to learn what we can from what happened, we must not blind ourselves to what are, we hope, the past realities of Irish society. The report found that a significant number of women admitted themselves to the laundries voluntarily. Presumably, this was because they had nowhere else to turn or because they felt that life would be better there than anything else which society offered. It is tragic to think of those women and the choices they faced but this again is a reality on which we must reflect.

Dr. McAleese points out at the beginning of the report that there is no single or simple story of the Magdalen laundries. More than 10,000 women are known to have entered the laundries from the foundation of the State in 1922 until the closure of the last laundry in 1996. Each of those girls and women were individuals with their own stories and experiences, before, during and after their time in the Magdalen laundries. It would be a great injustice to them to define their lives by the fact that they were in the laundries.

There is an obligation on us to address the women's needs arising from the hurt they experienced during, and due to, their time in the laundries. We wish not only to acknowledge the experiences many of the women had in these institutions but also to look to addressing their future needs. In particular, I want to pursue measures that will promote healing, reconciliation and, in so far as possible, provide closure to them. Attributing blame or taking an adversarial approach to this issue will not promote the well-being of the women concerned.

The Taoiseach has gone to some lengths to meet as many of the women concerned as possible. The largest grouping of women are those represented by the Irish Women Survivors Network based in the UK. The Taoiseach, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and I travelled specially to the UK to meet this group last Saturday. In Ireland, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste met women represented by the Magdalen Survivors Together and the Taoiseach also met women currently living in nursing homes or sheltered accommodation under the care of the religious congregations. I had met many of these women in the past, prior to the establishment of the McAleese committee, and Dr. McAleese also met many of them once he took up his appointment.

The concerns they expressed on their own behalf in all of these meetings were quite consistent. They had felt ignored for many years and wanted their stories listened to. Through the mechanism of the McAleese committee established by the Government, the women have had the opportunity to tell their stories, to have them listened to, acknowledged, recorded and believed. We have received letters or messages of thanks from both representative groups for this, expressing their appreciation for, and satisfaction with, this process and the manner in which it was conducted.

Another major concern expressed directly by the women themselves was their lasting concern and undeserved sense of shame due to the stigma they felt attached to them because Magdalen laundries were associated in the popular mind with what used to be referred to as "fallen women". The facts set out in the McAleese report clearly address this point and put an end forever to any stigma of this or any other kind.

The question of an apology has been addressed by the Taoiseach and, as Minister for Justice and Equality, I unreservedly endorse that apology. What remains is the question of what supports should be provided in the future. The Government decided earlier to establish fund for the benefit of the women who were in these institutions. The Government does not wish to see any of this fund wasted on lawyer's fees nor does it wish to go down the road of an adversarial approach where individual women will have to prove they were traumatised. We are concerned about providing speedy and effective practical help and support. This is also a message we received clearly from the women directly concerned.

The Government has given consideration to a number of purposes to which the fund might be put. As I mentioned, the largest single group of women who have come forward are based in the UK and represented by the Irish Women's Survivors Network. The Irish Survivors Advice and Support Network, ISASN, has worked with and provided advice and support to more than 2,000 survivors of industrial schools and laundries. It is proposed that the step by step centre for Irish survivors be established as a holistic and person-centred service that not only would offer accessible specialist advice and support to those affected, but also focus on ensuring their future health and well-being. The Government has made a decision in principle to pay out of the fund an initial sum of €250,000 to the UK step by step centre for Irish survivors of industrial schools and the laundries. I envisage this payment being made as soon as the legal technicalities have been clarified.

The fund is aimed at women who spent time in Magdalen laundries. However, the stories of a certain number of women who were admitted to and worked in the residential laundry in Stanhope Street in Dublin reflect those of the women in the Magdalen laundries. In recognition of that, the Government has decided to include the women who worked in the Stanhope Street laundry without pay within the scope of the fund. A number of women, in particular those represented by Magdalen Survivors Together, were keen to have some form of memorial for the story of the Magdalen laundries as we now know it.

It is appropriate that the women themselves now consider the nature and location of a memorial they would deem suitable.

The needs of individual women vary considerably and, as I noted, the Government wishes to have a system in place that will be open and transparent and at the same time will avoid a complicated administrative system. While I appreciate that any further lapse of time may not be very welcome, I hope, on balance, the women will see the advantages in our decision to appoint an independent person to advise on these matters in a relatively short timeframe. To this end, the Government has appointed retired High Court judge and current president of the Law Reform Commission, Mr. Justice Quirke, to examine how, taking into account the McAleese report, the Government might best provide supports, including health services such as medical cards, psychological and counselling services and other welfare needs for the women who need such supports as a result of their experiences. Mr. Justice Quirke is being asked to advise on the establishment of a scheme under the fund, which is to operate on a non-adversarial basis, to make payments to individuals from the fund. This will include identifying the criteria and factors to be taken into account, such as work undertaken in the laundries for no remuneration. He will advise on the operation of the fund and, in particular, the nature and amount of payments to be made out of the fund. He will further set the procedure for the determination of applications in a manner that ensures the moneys in the fund are directed only to the benefit of eligible applicants and not on substantial legal fees and expenses.

Mr. Justice Quirke is being asked to report back within three months. Everyone concerned is anxious to avoid unnecessary delays and I share this concern. For this reason, I have instructed officials in my Department to start the process now in anticipation of the entry into operation of the fund. To this end, with effect from tomorrow, people may contact my Department to register their interest in being considered to receive benefits or supports from the fund when it enters into operation. This will allow people time to gather the necessary basic documentation that will be required to verify their identity and stay in one of the relevant institutions. It may also give some indication of the numbers who have an interest in such a fund. I hope the religious congregations will co-operate in facilitating the operation of the system which will facilitate the making of payments to those who seek them.

The contact details will be as follows: Magdalen Laundry Fund, c/o Department of Justice and Equality, Montague Court, Montague Street, Dublin 2. There will be a notice on my departmental website, which will provide a telephone number, e-mail addresses and a website, www.idcmagdalen.ie. I do not expect anyone to remember the website addresses but the details will be readily accessible on my Department's website at www.justice.ie. My Department will also be in touch with the representative groups on this matter.

It will be a matter for Mr. Justice Quirke to decide how he will carry out his task. He will receive whatever assistance he needs from the relevant Departments and will, no doubt, take into consideration the views expressed by representative and advocacy groups. We are determined that the money in question will be solely for the benefit of the women. In that context, I am confident Mr. Justice Quirke will devise a scheme which will be straightforward and include every administrative assistance for applicants.

I know the women present this evening will be the first to agree that we should also remember that the greater number of women who were admitted to and worked in the laundries are, sadly, no longer with us. There are other women too, as the report points out, who never want to tell anyone of their time in the laundries. That is their right but I hope today that they, too, if only privately, can take some comfort from this day of acknowledgement.

We accept that what we have done today may not completely satisfy everyone concerned. No matter how much we want to, we cannot undo the hurt that has been done. However, what we have tried to do, having listened to the response of the women concerned to the report, is to attempt to resolve the issues faced by them in a fair and compassionate way, in so far as that is possible. Beyond what we have set out today, the greatest respect we can pay to their stories of the laundries is to say that those stories and the lessons from them will never be forgotten and are truly believed. We are committed to do whatever we can to be of assistance.

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