Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last Tuesday night was a unique occasion in Dáil Éireann. For the women who gathered here it was a special moment for them to put to rest a bleak memory of their past. For the State it was a time of recognition of past failings. For the Irish people it was an opportunity for the people's Chamber to acknowledge a historic wrong and thaw a cold part of our history.

The Taoiseach's apology was an important act of contrition for the State to recognise and apologise for failing vulnerable women over generations. It was a heartfelt speech, and I am glad that the survivors who watched from the public Gallery finally felt that the Irish State recognised the immense personal cost they have paid. It is rare in politics to see such joy and happiness. We are now tasked with justifying their hope and joy about that apology. I hope this House will now work to ensure that we put to right our flawed legacy.

For my part, I acknowledge the failure of my party in power to recognise the depth and scale of the suffering perpetrated in the laundries and the State's role in facilitating them. Justice delayed is justice denied, and I am sorry for the additional burden that delay placed upon the shoulders of the women involved who had already suffered enough. I hope that we can now take constructive steps to address the legacy of pain and the hurt that the State played such a central role in creating.

Members have spoken about closing a dark chapter in our history. I believe that the book of history should never be closed. The darker the pages the more they demand to be read by future generations. It is our job to put an end to the enduring suffering borne by the women involved in the laundries. We cannot allow ourselves the complacency of assuming the lessons have been learned. The chronicle of that suffering alongside the grim legacy of the industrial school complex is a scar on our history, but it is a part of our history.

We are morally obliged to future generations, and to past ones, to remember the successes and tragic mistakes that have shaped this country. That book should never be closed, and I am glad the women of the Magdalen laundries will ensure that their voices are heard and not condemned to the dark silence. Dr. Martin McAleese's report and the testimony of the brave women who spoke out are a dark chapter that demands to be read and one that we should never close.

Against that backdrop it is vital that we seek to preserve the historic record of the bleak period. In that regard I welcome the ongoing work of the UCD project and the insights provided by the McAleese report. Future generations should have ease of access to the record of this sad part of our history. Our task now is to work for the approximately 1,000 women who have survived. It is important that, building on the Taoiseach's apology, we ensure it has a real positive impact for the women involved. Words must be backed up by actions. The women must know that justice will be done.

In this light we welcome the appointment of Mr. Justice Quirke and look forward to his recommendations. We hope that a straightforward scheme will be devised which is, in the Taoiseach's words, simple, effective, non-adversial, non-litigious and compassionate. However, we must be mindful that the individual circumstances of each applicant may lead to a degree of complexity that, with the best will in the world, may prove difficult to avoid.

Presumably, any proposed scheme will take into account the differing periods of time each individual spent in a Magdalen laundry. It is reasonable to anticipate that those who were in the laundries for longer periods of time may receive higher levels of compensation, but the length of time spent in a laundry might not of itself be an adequate guide for compensation. Some Magdalen women who, on the face of it, spent a relatively short period of time in a laundry may have found that experience to have had an equal, if not a greater, impact upon them than others who were in the laundries for longer periods. Consequently, time of itself may prove to be a crude and unreliable yardstick. A broader range of factors other than time need to be considered. Issues such as individual psychological impacts, varying degrees of harshness of regime, etc. will need to be reflected in any proposed compensation scheme.

Tragically, thousands of Magdalen women are no longer with us. Of the total number only a relatively small number are still alive. In the context of deceased Magdalen women, the Taoiseach will be aware that the matter of deceased claimants was also considered under section 9 of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002. The spouses and children of deceased residents were enabled to apply for the redress to which those residents would have been entitled had they lived. A pressing question for those relatives must be dealt with by the Government. Is it the Government's intention to extend parity of treatment to the spouses and children of deceased Magdalen women?

I mention the foregoing matters of time endured, individual psychological impacts, varying degrees of harshness experienced and the entitlement or otherwise of spouses and children to apply to illustrate that the devising of a simple scheme is not without its difficulties.

We have previously called for a special unit to be set up in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to take ownership of the holistic welfare concerns of the survivors. The dedicated unit should function as an interdepartmental hub to facilitate access to all State social services and financial entitlements due to surviving women and their families. It is important that a co-ordinated one-stop-shop style approach is taken to addressing the complex intertwined issues that the women face. I trust that Mr. Justice Quirke will reflect upon these and other matters. It is imperative that these deliberations are guided by the acute need for justice for the women involved. We look forward to the outcome of his deliberations.

Last week's apology should be viewed as a seminal first step in a journey of understanding and redress by the State for the long-suffering women affected by the laundries. I trust that the Government is fully committed to seeing that journey through to the end and ensuring that justice is finally done for the women of the Magdalen laundries.

The Magdalen report marks another milestone in the process of dealing with our sometimes difficult past. The manner in which thousands of women were incarcerated and forced to work without pay was in no way humane, decent, compassionate and in line with the core beliefs of the Church which ran the laundries, namely, love one's neighbour as oneself. It flew in the face of all ideals at that time, even though the situation was very different. I wholeheartedly endorse the apology by the Government on behalf of the people to the women who were placed in the Magdalen laundries, regardless of the means by which they ended up in such institutions. We know the State was heavily involved in sending women to them, so it is morally responsible to provide redress to the women who spent time in them.

Without in any way taking from the experiences of the Magdalen women, I want to raise another issue which is closely related, namely, the case of the women who were sent to the Bethany Home and ancillary Protestant homes. To the extent that their situation was similar to that of the women who were sent to the Magdalen laundries, they deserve similar treatment. It is worth focusing a little on this because the women who were sent to the Bethany Home suffered appalling treatment and a shocking number of babies in them lost their lives. Through the work of people like Niall Meehan and Derek Leinster, we know at least 219 babies are buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome cemetery, which is barely two miles from here, and that they came from the Bethany Home. It is shocking to think such a thing happened in such a place, and in a free and independent country.

The reason the Bethany Home has yet to be dealt with is that the women there were in a slightly different situation in that they came from a Protestant background. It is worth noting that just because they came from a Protestant background did not mean they were wealthy. They were neither wealthy nor privileged. Like the Magdalen women, they were sent to the home by an unmerciful, uncompassionate and judgmental society - again, flying in the face of the core beliefs of the institutions which ran it.

The question is whether the State was involved in the Bethany Home. The answer is unquestionably "Yes". It was inspected by State officials from the late 1930s and it received financial support from the State from at least the 1940s. Essentially, the State gave the Protestant community money with studied indifference to the plight of the women and children there. Basically, the State told the Protestant community to look after its own. Part of that indifference was the price these 219 babies paid with their lives.

In an article in last Saturday's The Irish Times, Breda O'Brien, a woman with whom I would not normally agree, although in this case I did, quoted from a report on an inspection of the Bethany Home by the deputy chief medical officer, Sterling Berry, in 1939. In his report, Berry reported that it was well recognised that a large number of illegitimate children were delicate and marasmic, which means they were suffering the effects of starvation. I stress that this is from the report of an inspection of the home by the State. Was the State involved, was it indifferent to their plight and did the State fail them? The answer is obviously "Yes".

I welcome the fact the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Michael Jackson, has expressed sympathy for the cause of survivors and acknowledged a memorial should be created for those babies who died, something which is very important to the Bethany survivors, some of whom I have met. It is important these survivors do not become invisible people or be forgotten about because they did not quite come under the same system as the Magdalen women. Like me, the 20 who survive are citizens of this State and they deserve to be listened to and be heard. I urge the Government to ensure that the Bethany Home survivors group is not forgotten about. It is the very least they deserve from the State which failed them.

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