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

I thank Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan for raising this important matter and for giving me the opportunity to speak on the issue.

The House will be aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and I announced a scheme of lump sum payments on 26 June 2013 for women who were admitted to and worked in the Magdalen laundries, St. Mary's Training Centre, Stanhope Street, and House of Mercy Training School, Summerhill, Wexford. This followed the publication of the report by Mr. Justice Quirke, President of the Law Reform Commission, on the establishment of an ex-gratia scheme and a comprehensive range of supports for the women involved. As the Deputy mentioned, the Government tasked an interdepartmental group with giving further detailed consideration to the steps necessary to implement the other recommendations in Mr. Justice Quirke's report.

Pending completion of that report, arrangements were put in place in my Department to invite and process applications from the women involved. To date, more than 600 application forms have been received and more than 250 of these have been processed to an advanced stage.

The report of the interdepartmental group was discussed and the final details of the scheme agreed at Cabinet this morning. Full details of the scheme will published over the next few days.

The payment of lump sums, as recommended by Mr. Justice Quirke, will be made by my Department. In cases where application forms have been completed and records verified and subject to the clarification of a few legal issues by the Office of the Attorney General, I expect that my Department will be in a position to issue the first offers of payments within the next four to six weeks. The Deputy now has the date.

The provision of other benefits, including weekly payments from the Department of Social Protection and medical services to be provided through the Department of Health, will be dependent on the introduction of administrative and legislative measures. Work has already commenced on these measures and they will be progressed as soon as possible. So that no individual is prejudiced by the time required to give effect to the Government's decision, weekly payments to be made pursuant to the scheme are to be backdated to 1 August 2013.

As announced in the budget, these ex-gratia lump-sum payments will be exempt from income tax as well as the weekly payments, and this will be provided for in the Finance Bill. It had to be provided for in the Finance Bill. It could not have happened without express provision.

Mr. Justice Quirke recommended that as a precondition of receiving benefits under the scheme, the women concerned should sign a waiver not to take proceedings against the State. Before signing the waiver, the women will be encouraged to receive independent legal advice. Applicants will be facilitated to engage their own choice of solicitor and will be provided with a maximum amount from the State of €500 plus VAT as a contribution to the cost of obtaining legal advice on the signing of the waiver.

I am pleased that payments of the lump sums will commence shortly and as already stated, full details of the scheme will be published over the next few days.

It was particularly appropriate that the Deputy raised the matter for today. She was very prescient. The matter was pending to be dealt with by Cabinet and has been dealt with today. There is a formal announcement being made on foot of the Cabinet decision and, of course, I am very anxious that we progress matters further. There remains a considerable number of applications to be dealt with still. There are also various verification procedures to be dealt with.

The final issue the Deputy raised was the passing away of two individuals. It is envisaged under Mr. Justice Quirke's scheme that if someone passed away between the time of the announcement of the scheme and the lump sums becoming payable, a payment would be made to the estate of the individual concerned.

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