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

The programme for Government makes numerous commitments to older people, empowering women, protecting children and young people and equality and inclusiveness. It appears that when it comes to the survivors of the Magdalen laundries all of these worthy commitments go out the window. Following a comprehensive investigation into the administration of the Magdalen restorative justice scheme, the Ombudsman has today published a damning report into the scheme's failures.

What the investigation has exposed beggars belief. The Department of Justice and Equality administered the scheme in a manner which deliberately sought to exclude women from the redress to which they were entitled. Women who were effectively imprisoned on a single site, working side-by-side with those deemed eligible for redress, were refused their entitlements on the basis of the Department's incorrect administrative interpretation of the eligibility criteria relating to the 12 institutions covered by the State. Given that the State has failed the women twice, will the Government do the right thing and act on the recommendations of the Ombudsman?

See this speech in context