Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I strongly support the amendment. When we look at the approach taken by the State in its totality, in so far as it concerns the Magdalen women, it has been limited, piecemeal and expressly and deliberately designed to achieve damage limitation, particularly in the payment of damages and financial compensation that might be awarded to the women concerned. The McAleese report remains fundamentally flawed, as I have said consistently. I say this not to impugn former Senator Martin McAleese but to recognise that the terms of reference and his task were deliberately limited in scope. The United Nations has been critical of the process and does not believe the women concerned had access to a full and proper inquiry, much less an adequate remedy. There is deep unease among many survivors and their advocates about the legislation and, as Deputy Ruth Coppinger said, about pension entitlements. This amounts to a massive question mark over the legitimacy of any waiver signed. In any case, there is a broader issue about asking a citizen, particularly women and girls who were placed in detention against their will, in unpaid labour and subjected to physical assaults and sexual abuse in these institutions, to sign away the right to pursue the State. That is wrong in and of itself, but it is doubly wrong because the procedures, process and remedy afforded by the State, or the lack thereof, are so grossly inadequate.

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