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

I understand the Minister for Justice and Equality has finally brought outstanding legal advice to Cabinet this morning that will enable his Department to progress redress payments to survivors of the Magdalen laundries. A year has passed since the Ombudsman published his report of an investigation into the administration of the Magdalen redress scheme. That investigation found a serious inconsistency in the Department's application of the redress scheme's eligibility criteria. Women recorded as admitted to a different institution closely associated with another named laundry were wrongly refused admission to the scheme.

Even as the investigation was complete and the recommendations prepared, the first instinct of the Department was to push back and, at the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality earlier this year, Mr. Peter Tyndall told members that, in his ten years as Ombudsman, he had never reached a point where a Department had, prior to publication of a report, absolutely and categorically refused to engage in the process of accepting and implementing the recommendations made. While I welcome the belated decision to accept in full the recommendations made by the Ombudsman, I am utterly disappointed at the amount of time it has taken to do so and, more to the point, so are the women involved.

I am also alarmed to learn the Department has changed the redress scheme application process to require that elderly women include the weekly hours they worked in their respective laundries. Can the Taoiseach explain why this change was made and can he say if he believes it to be appropriate? Can he indicate that the women's applications will now be fast tracked with payments issued before Christmas?

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