Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the Minister met the Ombudsman last week. However, it is important that we recall that the report of the Ombudsman was produced and published five months ago. When he produced his report, he provided in it evidence of significant maladministration within the Department in terms of the operation of the scheme. The Ombudsman came to that conclusion having conducted an investigation after 27 women complained about the fact that they had been denied redress. He considered their complaints and those of others.

It is important to note that there are several issues currently outstanding with which the Minister must deal. Firstly, the Department has not yet complied with the recommendation of the Ombudsman that women who worked in Magdalen laundries as children but were registered on the rolls of other children's institutions should be allowed into the scheme. That matter must be dealt with. Secondly, the Minister raised the issue of the women who are deemed to lack the capacity to administer their financial affairs. Those women need assistance from the State and an advocacy service to act on their behalf. Thirdly, we must recognise that the Minister's Department has not yet complied with the recommendation to bring in an independent reviewer to reassess the applications of women given payments which reflect less than the time they stated they had spent in the laundries.

See this speech in context