Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have discussed this issue before. My Department and the women working to provide the service have taken every care to ensure all of the women applying for compensation have been dealt with carefully and as well as possible. I want to make a number of points. The Government made its decision, based on the recommendations of Mr. Justice Quirke, to establish an ex gratiascheme for the benefit of those women who had been admitted to and had worked in the ten Magdalen laundries, St. Mary's Training Centre, Stanhope Street and House of Mercy Training School, Wexford. The scheme is limited to these 12 institutions and there is no intention to expand it to include further institutions. Significant progress has been made in implementation of the scheme. Decisions have been made on 86% of the 774 applications received and 482 applicants have received lump sum payments, at a cost of €17.5 million. Many individual cases have been dealt with. Some 95 cases were refused, as the people concerned had not been in a relevant institution. They include women who were in mother and baby homes, industrial schools and other institutions run by religious orders which had laundries attached to them.

As the Deputy knows, An Grianán is located in the High Park complex. It was recognised by the Department of Education and Skills as a specific and separate institution and it was the first to be listed in the Schedule to the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002.

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Every one of the women about whom the Deputy has spoken was entitled, in the nine year period the scheme was open, to seek redress under it. Some of the women seeking redress under the Magdalen scheme may have received redress under the previous residential institutions redress scheme.

I have spoken to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy James Reilly, about including the women the Deputy has mentioned in the terms of reference for the mother and baby home inquiry, but there are a number of them who fall outside the various schemes. I hope my response has been helpful.

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