Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

For the 10,000 or so women who went through the Magdalen laundries, nothing we can do can undo the trauma and suffering they were put through or can undo the abuse, abandonment, exploitation and cruelty that was visited on them. Many of them are dead and will never see justice, their lives robbed almost entirely from them. The vast majority of those who still survive, most of whom are over 70 and many of whom are over 80, are nearing the end of their lives.

We should leave no stone unturned in ensuring that we do anything and everything possible to give them what redress, restitution and acknowledgement and justice we can, even though nothing we can do can fully undo the crimes that have been committed against them. At this late stage, when we have finally acknowledged the great injustice that has been done to them, we must make every effort and put no obstacle in the way of giving them everything they need to try in some small way to compensate for the suffering and cruelty that was inflicted on them. All of us in this House and, most important, the surviving women themselves, their supporters and family members and advocates believed that when the Taoiseach made the speech in which he apologised to the women and they applauded from the Gallery that the State finally was going to do everything it could to make up for its shameful betrayal and abandonment of those women. As soon as the issue dropped from the headlines, however, and other issues began to preoccupy the wider body politic, the media and public interest, at least from the point of view of the women themselves, and I take their judgment as definitive, the Government started to row back on the great promises it made to those women following what was deemed an historic day in this Chamber. That is shameful. It is miserable, mean-spirited, petty and frankly quite extraordinary that the Government would do that.

In some of the correspondence from the Department it was claimed that certain things that were promised, arising from the Quirke report, were not promised at all. It said there was no promise to provide a similar card to the HAA card which would give access to a full range of health services, as was given to women infected with hepatitis C by the State. The Justice for Magdalenes group had to point out that it was exactly what the Quirke report said. According to the first recommendation of Mr. Justice Quirke: “As an integral part of the ex gratia Scheme a card entitling its holder to health services equivalent to those provided to the holder of a HAA card should be given to each of the women who were admitted to and worked in a designated Magdalen laundry.” That had to be pointed out because Department officials said that was not exactly what was said, when it is exactly what was said. In a miserable, mean-spirited way the Government is rolling back on the commitments and promises made to those women. I appeal to the Government to stop being miserable, disingenuous and hypocritical, given the noble promises, acknowledgements and apologies that were given by it, and just give the women what was promised to them and what they deserve in terms of some sort of restitution and compensation for the suffering that has been inflicted on them.

Another point relates to the provision of advocates and representatives for those who cannot advocate and represent themselves for whatever reason – age, infirmity, disability or other reason - and that the Government would give those supports and services to those women and not try to deny those rights and supports to them in the small print, as it were. We can add to that the issue that was raised yesterday in terms of the motion we debated on the investigation into mother and baby homes. We must accede to the demands of the Justice for Magdalenes group that it would be included in the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes, given that its members are clear and categoric in their view that they do not believe the McAleese report was an adequate or sufficiently comprehensive investigation into the experience of the Magdalen women.

I do not really see how, given the statements made by the Taoiseach and other Government representatives in recent times on this matter, the Government can do anything less. It would be easy, and it would be the honourable and fair thing to do, to live up to those promises and give the commitments to the Magdalen women now rather than the miserable, penny-pinching and disingenuous rolling back in which the Government seems to be engaging.

I have one final point to make, as all the points have been clearly made by the women’s advocacy groups, the women themselves, other supporting groups and by a number of Deputies. The demands are clear and I hope the Minister will accede to them. It is appropriate that the Minister of State with responsibility for equality is present, because the other important point I wish to make in this House is that when all the apologies were made about the shameful treatment of women and children and some of the most vulnerable sectors of society, their abuse, exploitation and incarceration, and the destruction of childhood involved, one of the points made repeatedly is that we must never ever let this happen again. It is important to say that it is happening, as we speak, to another group of people. I refer to people in the direct provision centres. What they share in common is that, again, it is women and children, this time from immigrant minorities coming into this country, often fleeing persecution, cruelty and abuse in other countries, who are now incarcerated and in many cases have been for years. They have been robbed of their lives. We are again failing to provide equality of treatment and human rights that should be extended to all citizens, especially to women and children. That is after all the apologies and acknowledgements are given.

That gives the lie to the pious speeches and noble aspirations that were espoused about the Magdalen laundries in this Chamber being genuine when we still allow the situation to persist for another group of people. The question is whether we will be back here in a few years time saying we did it again to another group of people, and having to discuss compensation, redress, justice and restitution for another group of people. It is utterly disgusting that women and children are being locked up in these centres in the same way, with the same cruelty, as was done to 10,000 women in the Magdalen laundries, as was done to people in the mother and baby homes, the Bethany homes and industrial schools as part of the shocking and shameful architecture of oppression and abuse that dominated this State for most of its history. The time has come to draw a line under that and to give full justice, in so far as we can, to those who have been the victims of this shameful history, and to ensure that those who are currently victims of a similar type of regime are immediately released from their incarceration and abuse.

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