Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. Before I continue I want to clarify something. The response may have been drafted late last year given that this Topical Issue matter was to be taken last year, which is fair enough, and it might just be an error. The response states that the consultative forum's report was submitted late last year. I would say that should state "in late 2021" because I have a parliamentary question from my colleague, Deputy Paul Murphy, and the response to that written question, which was given in December 2022, suggests the document was submitted "last year". Will the Minister clarify this? Was it submitted in 2021 or 2022? I suspect it was 2021. Obviously, there is a huge difference. If it was late 2022, it could only be a few weeks ago and we could all understand the delay. However, in reality, I think it is almost 13 months since that report was submitted. If the Minister has the information to hand, I would appreciate if she could clarify this.

The response I have received here does not give me a whole lot of new information. These are all ongoing processes but survivors listening in and reading back on this afterwards will be wondering about the timeline and when are things actually going to happen. I have no indication of that here and this is what people need. As I already very clearly outlined, many of these people are older, many are in poor health and some of them are in very poor housing conditions. Some of them are suffering very severe hardship even to this day, despite the efforts of organisations in the past. Counselling and so on is all well and good but that is to do with their trauma and their emotional well-being, and it is important that those supports are there, but these people have material needs as well that have not been fully addressed. The pension, which was provided to the Magdalen laundries survivors, is a huge issue for them. It would provide stability and a decent standard of income in their final years as well as housing and enhanced health care as was provided in those other instances. What is timeline and when was that report submitted?

See this speech in context