Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 5, between lines 7 and 8, to insert the following:“Establishment of a Restorative Justice Scheme

5. The Restorative Justice Scheme proposed by the Magdalen Commission Report on the establishment of an ex-gratia Scheme and related matters for the benefit of those women who were admitted to and worked in Magdalen Laundries, authored by Mr Justice John Quirke and published in May 2013, shall be enacted.”.

The UN Human Rights Committee report on Ireland expressed grave concern at the lack of prompt, independent, thorough and effective investigations into all allegations of abuse, mistreatment and neglect of women and children in the Magdalen laundries and other institutions. We have not had it yet. The McAleese report was a deficient investigation and nobody argues that it was independent, unbiased and thorough. It is very important that it happens. If we take the UN's definition of a restorative justice scheme, the State and the church should be liable for this and we would "ensure that all victims obtain an effective remedy including appropriate compensation, restitution, rehabilitation and measures of satisfaction". What is on offer to the women is not doing this fully. Amendment No. 14 on the provision of the State pension contributions to all relevant participants, which specified that the women would be treated as if they had been working, was ruled out of order. Others proposed similar amendments and it was one of Mr. Justice Quirke's recommendations. Is it contained in the scheme? If so, why were our amendments ruled out, given that they would not have imposed a cost on the State? We do not have a restorative justice scheme for the victims of the Magdalen laundries and other institutions. Amendment No. 18 asks that the Minister review this in six months' time here in the Dáil so Members can scrutinise it and monitor the progress of what is paid out to the participants in order to verify that they get what they were promised.

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