Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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I wish to share time with Deputies Wallace, Daly, Boyd Barrett and Collins.

I support this motion tabled by Sinn Féin. I signed my name to it because what else could one do. These people need justice and they need it before it is too late. The longer we wait, the less likely it is that they will get justice.

I started reading the report produced by Justice for Magdalenes and I must say it is very hard work to read it. If it is hard work to read the report, it must have been absolute hell to exist as those people were forced to exist. I consider myself very lucky that myself and my wife were not born 30 years earlier than we were because, given that my two children were born outside wedlock, my wife would probably have been put in care and my children taken away from me. I would probably have ended up in England and everyone would have ended up miserable. If one imagines oneself in that position and asks if one deserves justice, the answer is yes, of course.

One particular story in the report stood out. Often mothers and daughters were in the same facility and in one case, a mother was in the same chapel as her daughter, week after week but she was not told it was her daughter. I am trying to understand how anyone could be so cruel as to do that to someone. It is fairly obvious it was cruel. It was fairly obvious to Deputy Shatter in December 2009 that it was wrong, when he said there was "irrefutable evidence" that there was State complicity in the Magdalene laundries. That is still true today and he needs to act on it today.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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I also read the Justice for Magdalenes report over the weekend and upsetting as it is, it should be made compulsory reading for all citizens. It is a register of the crimes committed by this State against women. After reading the report, there can be no doubt that this was a deliberate social policy which was summed up in the report of the Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, which dealt with how the State handled births outside marriage. A woman could be detained in a mother and baby home for a year if she had one child outside marriage. If she had two children, she could be detained for two years and if she had any more, she could be detained for as long as the State deemed necessary. The object was clearly defined thus: "...to regulate control according to individual requirements, or in the more degraded cases to segregate those who have become sources of evil, danger, and expense to the community." How more horrendous could any sentence be?

I read of one case where a girl was raped by her brother. He was imprisoned for six years and she got life in a Magdalene laundry. I also read of another woman, buried in Limerick, who spent 74 years in a laundry. The report is a litany of degradation, imprisonment, violations of human rights and forced labour. The evidence is irrefutable in this report. The State was fully complicit in all of these activities through the capitation fees it paid on behalf of those who were on probation and sent to laundries. It was complicit in the transferring of young women to the laundries from industrial schools. There was no monitoring of the conditions in the laundries and the State fought against the application of the Factories Act, when it was introduced, to the laundries. When the Act was applied, the State carried out no enforcement. The State also interacted in the drawing up of the lucrative commercial contracts between the laundries and the Army, prison services and so forth.

It is not good enough for the Government to say, "wait, we will deal with it this year". These people have already waited a lifetime. Many of them cannot wait any more. The UN Commission on Torture said over three months ago that this should have been dealt with. This is an ageing population. They deserve an apology now. They deserve redress now. I support the suggestion that these laundries were commercial enterprises and the reckonable service should be pensionable. The money should be recovered in unpaid PAYE and PRSI contributions to foot the bill. There should be no more excuses or delays. This matter should be dealt with now.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The history of the Magdalene laundries and the tens of thousands of women who were incarcerated, abused, exploited and enslaved in those institutions is a black stain on the history of this State and is part of a landscape of shame that includes the industrial schools, the Bethany Home and widespread abuse of children by the church. The State is ultimately responsible for this. The role of the religious orders and the church hierarchy is beyond question, in the way they used their twisted notions of morality to justify visiting appalling suffering, abuse and exploitation on tens of thousands women. That is well known and beyond question. However, it is the State that is ultimately responsible for the welfare of every citizen. It is well documented that the State was directly and indirectly, through neglect and through turning a blind eye, responsible for allowing these horrors, this abuse, exploitation and enslavement to be inflicted on so many Irish women over decades.

The State passed laws and took measures that directly underpinned the Magdalene laundry system. The gardaí returned women who fled or escaped to these institutions. The State provided direct and indirect financial support to the laundries and abdicated its duty of care to these women by failing to ensure that their human rights were vindicated. All of this was done very deliberately by the State. It essentially used the church and its institutions as a method of social control, for cynical economic and political reasons and for twisted notions of morality. Against this context, it is shameful that this Government is continuing to delay giving these women the justice, acknowledgement and the compensation they deserve for the suffering they endured at the hands of the church and the State. The Government has no excuse for further delay. The survivors and victims have said they support the interdepartmental committee but it should not be used as an excuse to delay the apology and the redress that they deserve now. The Government should give that to them tonight.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I welcome the motion and commend Sinn Féin for tabling it. I am disappointed that the Government has tabled an amendment to the motion. This is not an issue on which the House should divide. Even at this late stage, I appeal to the Minister to withdraw the amendment and to allow this motion to be passed unanimously by the House.

We must acknowledge that abuse occurred in Magdalene laundries. The abuse was an appalling breach of trust and the victims of that abuse suffered, and continue to suffer, greatly. We must acknowledge the hurt and the hardship caused by the exclusion of survivors of the Magdalene laundries from the residential institutions redress scheme. We also need to recognise that the survivors are predominantly elderly.

The survivor testimony itself records that women were made to work without pay, were kept behind locked doors and returned by gardaí if they attempted to escape. The State had a role in this and we must acknowledge that there is now growing evidence that the State sent women and girls to the Magdalene laundries. The State also provided the religious orders which ran the laundries with direct and indirect financial support. It also failed abjectly to supervise the religious orders in the operation of the laundries. On that basis I support the motion and again appeal to the Minister to withdraw the amendment.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I too commend Sinn Féin for introducing this motion.

I also find it difficult to understand why the House is not in full agreement on the motion. I have no doubt that everyone in the House must find it difficult to read the stories of the people concerned, the survivors. The stark submission from the Magdalene group indicates that the State was involved in sending women and girls to the Magdalene laundries and ensuring that they remained there, in most cases without any statutory basis for doing so. The State regarded the Magdalene laundries as an opportunity to deal with various social problems such illegitimacy, poverty, homelessness, disability, so-called eccentric behaviour, domestic and sexual abuse, youth crime and infanticide. It failed to make its own provision for these problems and came to rely on the availability of the Magdalene institutions instead.

I find it harrowing also to note the timetable of events. The Justice for Magdalenes group originally submitted its draft to the Government in July 2009. It is three years since the Labour Party supported the redress scheme. In December 2009 the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform acknowledged that the State was complicit in referring women to Magdalene laundries. In March 2011, when the Government came to power, the group submitted a restorative justice and reparation scheme to it, updating the scheme published in July 2009. Fifteen months ago the UN Committee against Torture gave the State one year to obtain redress for survivors. I find it difficult to credit the Minister of State's assertion last night that the call for an apology and a redress scheme was premature. I accept that the wheels of democracy turn slowly but it was miraculous how quickly we were able to organise the bank bailout. I accept Rome was not built in a day, but an immediate apology is required.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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I wish to share time with Deputies Paul Connaughton, Joe O'Reilly, Regina Doherty, Seán Kenny, Seán Kyne and Marcella Corcoran Kennedy.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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As a public representative I am often required to speak and debate on matters on which I might not hold a professional qualification or even have personal experience. No one is capable of being an expert on every topic. I feel comfortable informing myself to the best of my ability and forming a judgment, yet there are some topics, regardless of how much I read or how much research I do, that I feel I can never fully understand. The Magdalene issue is one such topic. Some facts are known and they are almost incomprehensible. More than 30,000 women and girls were incarcerated in those institutions, enduring forced labour, brutal conditions and enforced confinement. They lived with a cultural stigma that attached such deep shame that many begged to be sent to prison rather than to the laundries.

As a representative for Galway West I thought it appropriate to read the following extract from the report of Justice for Magdalenes, which I re-read today.

[T]he Mother Superior of the convent operating the Magdalene Laundry in Galway in 1958 [said] that seventy per cent of the women in that Laundry were “unmarried mothers”. [...] When asked whether a woman or girl could leave whenever she chose, the Mother Superior stated “No, we’re not as lenient as that. The girl must have a suitable place to go. [...] Some stay for life”.

I acknowledge the bravery and courage of those women who have campaigned for justice, not just for themselves but for others. It cannot be easy. The persistent reminder of the abuse they have suffered in the course of their campaign must be extremely difficult. I accept the Government's request that Senator Martin McAleese and his committee be allowed finish their report so as to allow a full and proper debate. I am told the report will be finished by the end of this year at the latest. It is on that contention that I seek some satisfaction. However, I warn that any delay beyond the end of the year would be utterly and completely unacceptable.

Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this important motion. Recent decades have seen huge progress in Irish society in terms of assessing how the country's most vulnerable people were treated in past decades and an important part of that has been assessment of the circumstances of women and girls who resided in Magdalene laundries across the country. Initially those institutions were designed as places of asylum for women and were found throughout Europe as well as in Canada and the United States. However, by the early 20th century in Ireland, these centres had adopted a more prison-like regime, with enforced labour and long periods of silence. Lest anyone think that these institutions belong to a dim and distant part of Ireland's past, the last Magdalene asylum closed in Waterford just 16 years ago in 1996. Their presence was widely accepted although the residents of the institutions were rarely seen in public. Áras an Uachtaráin, Bank of Ireland, the Department of Defence and the Department of Agriculture all used the services of the laundries. In her 2001 book on the subject, Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalene Asylums in Ireland, Frances Finnegan suggests that it was the advent of the washing machine, as opposed to any moral outcry, that led to the demise of such institutions. Survivors of the institutions report the prevalence of forced labour and the use of women and children as unpaid workers, all of which appear to contravene the 1930 Forced Labour Convention.

The nation as a whole must reflect on the brutal treatment meted out to those women and the silence that surrounded the subject for many years. Such an assessment must be carried out properly and deserves due consideration. It is right and proper that the committee chaired by Senator Martin McAleese is afforded until the end of the year to conclude its work and submit a final report. Fifteen months ago the Government decided upon the establishment of an interdepartmental committee to consider the circumstances of the women and girls who lived in the institutions. That was the correct decision to take as a first step to establishing the truth about what happened inside the walls of the institutions. The proper course of action is that sufficient time is taken to produce the report. After decades of silence, the very least we can do for the women and girls who lived in the institutions, often working for paltry or non-existent wages, is to give their cases the consideration they merit. To rush the report would not provide justice to the women. The time specified is not too long to allow for the production of such an important report, especially when one considers that the committee must review such institutions over a 90-year period and also that submissions by relevant representative groups were being made up to mid-August. I endorse the Government's position on the report. Senator McAleese and his colleagues on the interdepartmental committee must be afforded the necessary time to properly conduct the investigation and compile the results into a narrative that details the experience of the women.

I note Deputy McDonald's statement that the women involved are ageing and are anxious to achieve closure on the issue, but to pre-empt the publication of such a report by making a decision in advance of its circulation would be wrong. These forgotten women of Irish history, many of whom disappeared behind the high walls of those institutions for decades, deserve to have their stories told in a proper fashion and to have the matter explored properly in a way that respects their dignity while at the same time giving proper consideration to this important issue.

Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Magdalene story is a dark and scandalous part of our history. Just as we recall past glories and live off them, we cannot deny this part of our history, nor should we. We must confront it, accept it as part of our story and deal with it. While nobody should seek to shield those directly responsible, be they religious or lay, we cannot deny our culpability in that all of us have a collective guilt. Our attitudes, silence and callous indifference all fed into the problem. That is not for one moment to say that horrendous crimes were not committed by the people immediately involved in the institutions, but our collective guilt cannot be denied either.

I understand the need for urgent action given the age and frailty of many of the victims. I say to the Minister that our stance even in the interim, as of today and every day from now on, should be proactive in support of the women. I presume it is, but it should be nothing short of fully proactive and helpful to the women, emotionally, psychologically, financially and in every practical way. There is more than a prima facie case suggesting State involvement.

Last night's "Prime Time" provided the most recent assertion of the active use of the laundries as jails and the State's purchase of their services. In itself, this meant complicity. Nevertheless, it is worth waiting - although not indefinitely - for the interdepartmental report. The interdepartmental committee has a prestigious chair in Senator McAleese, which lends it authority. Its interim report would suggest it is being well co-operated with and that it is uncovering and collating evidence. We know that prima facieevidence exists but the committee is bringing it together in an official report that has status. I urge that the report should come out quickly and I ask the Minister to press for its publication at the earliest date possible. I accept the point made about the frailty and age of those concerned and therefore the report should come out as soon as is humanly possible. However, I side with the body of evidence that shows that although we should care immediately for the woman who, as victims, should now be cared for in every practical and conceivable way, the final redress should await the actual report. This would turn the prima facieevidence into an actual commissioned report, with all the status that goes with that. Then there must be real action, which should involve an apology and so forth.

We all need this. It will be good for the body politic, for society, for every player involved and for all of us in the country who are collectively guilty. We need a truth and reconciliation process similar to the South African process that followed apartheid, a truth and reconciliation forum to be established to tell the Magdalene story. It is a sordid part of our history. We cannot romanticise our past and ignore this. Only by looking holistically at our history will we benefit as a people and evolve into a better society with more humane principles and more proper values.

I appeal to those who proposed the motion. I commend Sinn Féin on introducing it. It is an excellent use of Private Members' time; that is my genuine belief. Although I commend its introduction, I appeal to the Members to refrain from pre-empting the outcome of the report. They should urge the earliest possible publication of the report and for all speed and all resources to be given to the committee. I do not believe they should pre-empt the committee's final report. It has a prestigious chair and because it is acting as an interdepartmental body, its report will be decisive and authoritative. I appeal to Sinn Féin to consider this, pull back the motion and accept the Government amendment on that basis. We should move to have a truth and reconciliation commission after that report appears and should not wipe this history under the carpet. It is too much a part of us to be ignored - a sad and dark part of us.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this motion. Although I agree broadly with our response and our amendment to it, what is glaringly obvious to me and, I assume, to every other Member of the House, is the omission of an apology. I acknowledge the steps the Government has taken since last year's recommendation and I recognise and admire the work being undertaken by Senator Martin McAleese's interdepartmental committee, which was established to clarify the extent of State involvement in the laundries. We certainly do not call for it to stop. We want its work speeded up. However, it is clear to me there is enough evidence of State involvement in the Magdalene laundries for the Government to issue an apology.

A piece in The Irish Times today really struck me:

No apology, no pension, no lost wages, no redress and no acknowledgment that what had happened to them was wrong. A population of Irish women, aging and elderly, living at home and abroad, many vulnerable and marginalised, are all left waiting as time slips by.

This week every Deputy and Senator in the Oireachtas received a redacted copy of the Justice for Magdalenes' recent principal submission to the interdepartmental committee investigating the State's involvement with the laundries. This involvement documents overwhelming and irrefutable evidence of State complicity in the abuses experienced by young girls and women in these institutions. I hope the pending final report on the issue by the interdepartmental committee will offer an even more complete picture of the involvement of this State.

In the testimonies gathered, survivors have testified they could not leave the laundries, that doors were locked and windows inaccessible. If they did try to leave they were returned by gardaí. Others decided not to try to escape because they knew the same fate awaited them. They could not complain and, in most cases, they remarked there was no one to whom they could complain in any case. Others begged to leave, often daily, but were always refused. Every survivor has confirmed they were never paid, that no inspections were ever carried out and that no Government official ever came to check on them. These women have been let down all their lives and I sincerely hope they will not be let down again. I urge that the report of the interdepartmental committee be published with all haste and that we issue the strongest and most sincere apology that can be offered on behalf of the State to these women.

Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Last year I welcomed the setting up of the interdepartmental committee of inquiry and was pleased that the records of all Departments would be made available for the committee's work. I also welcomed the assurance of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, to the Justice for Magdalenes' campaign that the development of a narrative of State interaction with the Magdalene laundries would consider acts of omission on the part of the State, in particular the State's failure to inspect and regulate and thereby prevent abuse in the laundries.

The committee produced an interim progress report within three months of its establishment in October 2011. Along with a number of committee meetings, there were meetings with the religious congregations who ran the institutions, relevant academics, and representative groups of the women who resided in the laundries. The committee reported that extensive searches of all State records had commenced, with results being reported regularly. Relevant Departments and State offices not represented on the committee have also been contacted with a view to checks being conducted on their records.

The report acknowledged the difficulty in identifying and tracing records going back over 90 years. The committee acknowledged the co-operation of the religious orders which have given them their full assistance and co­operation. It also acknowledged the constructive engagement with the relevant advocacy and representatives groups. The committee met Justice for Magdalenes, the Irish Women Survivors Support Network in the UK, and the Magdalene Survivors Group.

The committee pointed out the complexity of its task, which required the tracing and examination of a large volume of records across a wide range of sources and covering a period of some 90 years. Although Senator McAleese had hoped to conclude the work of the committee by mid-2012 he also stated this date might have to be adjusted, depending on the volume of records uncovered and the availability of resources.

A significant level of information and documentation has already been identified by the committee and I understand the drafting of the final report has begun. However, relevant records continue to be identified and the committee continues to receive new submissions from representative and advocacy groups. Senator McAleese has advised that the committee intends to produce its final report as soon as possible, at the latest before the end of the year. He has explained that information is still being identified which has the capacity to add to the overall outcome of the committee's work in a meaningful way and stated that the committee believes it would be improper to conclude without examining the additional material. The State, the Government and individual Deputies like me must remember that the issue of the Magdalene laundries is fundamentally about the women who spent time in the institutions. It is also about their children. Many of the survivors are now are elderly. Some women believe - with very good reason - that both church and State have pursued a policy of denial until admission became absolutely necessary.

All the indications are that the report of the interdepartmental committee will put us in a position to have a meaningful debate on the issues raised by the different groups representing those who have been in Magdalene laundries. I agree fully with the view of Government that to pre-empt the report of the committee by making decisions or assertions of fact is not the correct course of action to take. We have been told we will have the report as soon as possible, certainly before the end of this year which at this stage is only a matter of months away. The only reasonable course of action is to await that report.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Magdalene laundries are perhaps the most powerful symbol of the inhumanity and brutality which formed a part of Irish society in the 20th century. It is almost incomprehensible to my generation and to younger generations that such institutions were allowed to exist. Moreover, the laundry system was supported by the State through commercial contracts and, outrageously, through society's abandonment of vulnerable citizens for the most dubious of moral reasons.

Reading through the testimony of the experiences of the survivors which has been compiled by the Justice for Magdalenes support group one cannot but be ashamed of this stark aspect of our collective past. Trapped, abandoned, locked away and subjected to horrific abuse the women incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries were modern day slaves stripped of inherent rights and deprived of dignity.

The 1911 census of the Mercy laundry in Galway shows women of all ages, all Roman Catholic and from nearly every county in the country. Their home, such as it was, was Galway but not by choice. In 2009 in Galway, a sculpture was dedicated to the women who endured the Mercy laundry. The statue is of a woman in institutional drab clothes holding the sheet aloft to symbolise her enforced endless hours of work - a simple but provocative image.

The effects on those houses of mercy are still felt today. Testimony in the report from one Galway survivor states that she still suffers nightmares 50 years on. Another eye witness states that a nun used a strap to beat a woman who was depressed and could not work until she was hysterical. There are many examples of emotional and physical abuse, seclusion and humiliation of women.

The excellent work carried out by Justice for Magdalenes not only catalogues these experiences and their aftermath but also sets out a historical account of the laundries and notes how a frenzied public morality combined with a dominant religious force and an indifferent Government transformed 19th century refuges into 20th century prisons and labour camps. Furthermore, despite the assertions of a previous Government, the Justice for Magdalenes report demonstrates that the laundries were used by the courts as a place of so-called rehabilitation.

The detrimental effects blighted the lives of the women affected long after they had left these institutions. Health problems, both physical and mental, relationship difficulties and marriage breakdowns, as well as strained relations with families and friends, arose out of this despicable system. What is even more appalling is that some women were condemned to live out their entire lives in these institutions.

As a society, we must face the reality that the abuse that occurred in the Magdalene laundries was in the public domain just as the clerical abuse catalogued by the Murphy and Ryan reports was known to be happening.

The religious orders cannot be let off the hook in terms of providing financial support for their part in this abuse. This Government initiated the process when it established the interdepartmental committee chaired by Senator Martin McAleese. Regrettably, the conclusion of the committee's work has been delayed, which is perhaps inevitable as its work includes a large number of stakeholders as well as the identification and tracking of documents and records over several decades, but I am confident the committee will provide a comprehensive account of the State's involvement in the Magdalene laundries scandal and promote further debate from which restorative action will emerge. The survivors and their families are entitled to closure on their long campaign for justice and I hope this is forthcoming very soon.

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion and note that yesterday it coincided with the moving of the Bill by the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, to allow for one of the most important referenda in the history of the State, the Thirty-First Amendment of the Constitution (Children) Bill 2012.

I cannot but reflect on the past, even from the 19th century but especially from 1922 to 1996 when the rights of children, and the rights of their mothers, were of no importance to this State. It was a period, from the foundation of the State, where our children conceived out of wedlock were not welcome in our society and their mothers were considered to be lesser citizens than everyone else, including the father of the child. It was a time when it was deemed acceptable to deprive those women, many of whom were only girls, not only of their children but also of their freedom, forcing them into a life of unpaid labour and imprisonment.

Thankfully, though deeply saddening, the treatment of those families is by now well documented. The harsh reality for them has been articulated by many, including Justice for Magdalenes, and has been accepted by the Irish Human Rights Commission, the United Nations Committee against Torture, and Dr. Geoffrey Shannon that the State's failure to monitor conditions in the laundries amounted to grave and systemic violations of the human rights of all girls and women as protected by the Irish Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, international labour organisation conventions, and UN human rights conventions.

Why was that the case? Why did our State abdicate its responsibilities to its female citizens and children and hand them over to the religious orders? Such was the neglect of its responsibilities that there was no inquiry, inspection or regulation. For what crime were women incarcerated and punished? Some became pregnant. Many of them were victims of rape.Others were incarcerated for petty crimes and for no reason other than they were orphans yet our State did nothing.

It is ironic that what we now call Magdalene laundries were referred to as homes, asylums or refuges. In the definitions of those words nothing could have been further from the truth. Some of those in control of the laundries appear to have been Christians in name only.

It is over ten years, February 2002, since the then Government acknowledged that abuse occurred in the Magdalene laundries. I want to acknowledge and appreciate the testimony of the survivors and others who came forward with their evidence. In the past our society put little value on people speaking out, especially where the Church and State were concerned, and I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for them not only to speak out but, in doing so, to relive a time in their lives which was unimaginably traumatic and disturbing, leaving them with lifelong emotional and physical damage.

Almost two years ago, and a full eight years after the acknowledgement that abuse occurred in the Magdalene laundries, the Irish Human Rights Commission published a document entitled Assessment of the Human Rights Issues Arising in relation to the Magdalen Laundries. This document included the recommendation that any investigation "should first examine the extent of the State's involvement in and responsibility for the girls and women entering the laundries; the condition of the laundries; the manner in which girls and women left the laundries and end of life issues for those who remained".

I welcome that on taking office last year this Government established the interdepartmental committee to establish the facts of the State involvement with the Magdalene laundries as a matter of public interest. In July last year, I was delighted when Senator Martin McAleese was formally appointed by the Minister, Deputy Shatter, as the independent chair of the committee. In establishing it, Senator McAleese requested that senior officials representing all the relevant Departments would sit on the committee, and within one week of his appointment the committee met.

I welcome also the approach taken by Senator McAIeese and his committee to work positively and sensitively with all who have information of interest and assistance.

Considerable work has been completed so far by the committee in a spirit of openness and fairness offering complete confidentiality to those who volunteer to provide information and access to files and documents. It is important that the committee be allowed to continue its work to establish the facts in examining how the four religious orders operated the laundries.

I welcome the facilitation of the committee to encourage submissions from advocacy groups, individuals or representative groups to provide information, which may not have been already recorded, and also all the other information sought from State agencies including the Health Service Executive, the Garda Síochána and the National Library of Ireland to mention a few. Crucially, the committee has had meetings with representatives of Justice for Magdalenes, the Irish Women Survivor Support Network and Magdalene survivors.

There is an enormous amount of information to be examined and, I suspect, more than we thought initially. While I sincerely acknowledge the anxiety of all of those women, now elderly, and their families to see the conclusion of the work of the committee, I am optimistic that the committee can stay on its own schedule to conclude its work by the end of this year.

I realise it is not in the terms of reference of this committee to make an apology to these deserving women and their families but the very least they deserve when all the facts are established is an apology, redress and restorative justice.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Michael Colreavy whom I understand is sharing time with Deputies Brian Stanley, Peader Tóibín, Sean Crowe, Dessie Ellis and Martin Ferris.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Is Ireland's legal and political system incompatible with justice?

We are still discussing the Magdalene laundries and we are not even considering the Bethany Home. I am obliged to wonder about how we, as a society, have let these people down.

The Magdalene laundries are a great stain on the history of Ireland in the 20th century. By voting in favour of the motion, Members have the opportunity to ensure that these laundries will not also become a stain on Ireland in the 21st century. The purpose of the motion is to acknowledge the suffering the State participated in bringing about. It also calls on the State to acknowledge the need for immediate and meaningful discussions on the need for both an apology and redress. This State's treatment of women during the 20th century can only be described as appalling. The Magdalene laundries are a horrific example of how the State turned a blind eye to the obvious mistreatment and abuse of women that was perpetrated by religious orders. To this day, however, nothing has been done to address the plight of those to whom I refer. Thanks to good investigative journalism, the vast majority of people living in this country now know of the terrible deeds that were done and the justice that was inflicted on these women but the State has failed to issue a quick and comprehensive acknowledgement of their needs.

Since assuming office, Labour and Fine Gael have not dealt comprehensively with the outcome of the previous Government's refusal to include the Magdalene women in the residential institutions redress scheme or to provide a separate redress mechanism or an apology. This is not good enough. Many of the women who were detained in the laundries are aging and time is of the essence in the context of bringing about a resolution. Many of the women in question are also unwell and this is partly, if not wholly, due to the time they spent incarcerated in the laundries. To add insult to injury, they cannot gain access to the pensions to which they are entitled after engaging in so many years of gruelling labour for the religious orders. This is because those orders did not pay the women for their work and nor did they file normal annual employer returns to Revenue. The latter was despite the fact that they ran the laundries as commercial enterprises.

In order for justice to be done, the Government must act now rather than allowing matters to continue to drift. The Irish Human Rights Commission, in an assessment report compiled in 2010, found that women who were locked up in Magdalene laundries suffered serious abuses of their human rights. The commission called on the Government to immediately establish a statutory inquiry into their treatment and to provide redress to the survivors, as appropriate. It was supported in this regard by the UN Committee against Torture, which recommended that the State should institute prompt, independent and thorough investigations and, in appropriate cases, bring prosecutions, in addition to affording redress, compensation and rehabilitation to former residents of the Magdalene laundries. There can be no doubt that what these women suffered in those laundries was nothing short of torture.

The Government cannot shy away from the responsibility is has to these women on behalf of Irish society. The purpose of the motion is to challenge the Government to take the immediate measures necessary to support the women on the basis of the extensive information that is already in the public domain. It is essential that the Government should take action. Every backbencher should support the motion because justice delayed is justice denied. We should not deny these women justice any longer.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to extend my sympathy and support to the women who suffered abuse in the Magdalene laundries. I applaud them for maintaining their dignity and I compliment them on the way they managed their campaign to seek justice. They have been an inspiration to people throughout Ireland in the context of how they have conducted themselves.

The abuse that took place in the residential institutions is a dark stain on our country's history. There are many lessons to be learned from what occurred, one of which is that no organisation, body or entity should have absolute power - as was the case with the Catholic Church and the State - over people's lives. This must never happen again and we must ensure that there will always be oversight, transparency, supervision and accountability. The women in question were locked up, enslaved and abused mentally, physically and, in some cases, sexually for no other crime than being considered nonconformist or somehow outside the norm. This was at a time when there was a twisted view of what was women's role in society.

It is ironic that we are obliged to engage in this debate, particularly as it comes within seven days of the Government announcing a date for the referendum to guarantee the rights of children. While I welcome the referendum, I must point out that the Government continues to drag its feet on the granting of justice to those women who were enslaved in the Magdalene laundries. The motion calls for the Government to commit to an open and meaningful debate on the issue of an apology - Deputy Regina Doherty referred to this fact - redress and restorative justice measures. How can the Government not support these very simple and just demands?

We have been dealing with this issue for many years. It is ten years since the Dáil formally acknowledged the appalling abuse that took place in the Magdalene laundries. The women who were incarcerated in those laundries are predominantly aging and elderly. We cannot wait any longer to obtain justice for them. Such justice must be seen to be done and not when the Government or anyone else is ready. Justice should be done in this Chamber tonight. The women have waited too long and their suffering is only being compounded by the length of time it is taking to obtain justice for them. It is not for the want of evidence that justice is being denied. Some 22 months ago the Irish Human Rights Commission issued its report, Assessment of the Human Rights Issues Arising in regard to the Magdalene Laundries, and 15 months ago the United Nations stressed the need for the State to ensure that survivors will obtain redress. However, the Government's silence regarding this matter has been deafening and its foot-dragging in respect of it is terrible. In its report, the UN expressed grave concerns about the failure of the State to institute a prompt investigation into allegations relating to the ill-treatment that occurred in the Magdalene laundries. Even the very congregations which ran the ten laundries have expressed a willingness to bring about clarity, understanding and justice in respect of the women involved.

It is shocking that the State colluded in the imprisonment and enslavement of such large number of children and young women in the first instance. Between 1926 and 1951, some 31,000 were kept in these shadowy, awful institutions. As recently as 1964, children were being snatched from playgrounds and taken to other institutions in which they were treated in an equally cruel fashion. Those children were never seen again. All of this was done with active State support. This is not a myth because I witnessed one incident of this happening, when the members of a family were snatched from a school playground and taken away. They were never seen again.

The question remains as to why the Government will not support the motion. Prevarication is cruel, so why will this Administration not allow justice to prevail? I appeal to those on the Government benches - in the spirit of the forthcoming referendum - to allow the bells of justice to ring out. The facts are known so they should stop dragging their feet. They should do the right thing and support both the motion and the women's quest for justice.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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James Connolly is often quoted as stating that the measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable. By that measure, Irish society has failed shockingly in respect of those who were resident in the Magdalene laundries and the Bethany Home. There is little need for me to detail the abuse, neglect, incarceration, systemic oppression, institutionalisation, deprivation in the context of education and forced labour without pay experienced by tens of thousands of Irish women. This has already been so eloquently done by my comrades. I must state, however, that I was shocked to read the submission from the Justice for Magdalenes group. I genuinely felt an enormous sense of disbelief that this type of abuse could have been visited upon vulnerable women. To my generation, a significant part of the past is a foreign country. However, it is unbelievable that the Magdalene laundry system remained in place until 1996. I am equally dumbfounded by the fact that in 2012 Magdalene women have not received justice or even an apology.

I am not naive. In that context, I am aware that in the first half of the previous century Ireland did not have the welfare state safety nets necessary to protect vulnerable people. I am also aware that in 2012, hundreds of young men and women are allowed to slip - often with tragic consequences - through the cracks in this austerity State's welfare system.

One would imagine that in a so-called progressive and enlightened society, people would act with haste and urgency to address the grievances, to apologise and to compensate. Prolonging the injustice and allowing the clock to tick by for women in their 80s who were unjustly left without a pension due to the decisions of this Government, is a disgraceful and inadequate response.

Our motion does not even go that far. All we ask is that the material well-being of these women, their ability to provide for themselves and their rights due from their work, are provided for. It is not the case that the State was oblivious of their existence. The State paid capitation fees and it paid for laundry services provided. The State incarcerated citizens within its walls and it captured and returned escapees. The funding of the Magdalene laundries and part-populating of them could only be done with full knowledge. Partnership and participation with the system brings responsibility. If the Government needs to know what is best to do then all it needs to do is remember what its members did when in opposition when they called for redress for these women.

In 2009, Labour Women made a determination that redress should be forthcoming. The Irish Human Rights Commission found that serious issues of human rights arose with regard to the treatment of women and girls in the Magdalene laundries. The UN Committee Against Torture recommended that the State issue prompt redress. The campaign by Justice for the Magdalenes must be commended. It has provided a powerful mirror to show us what sort of a society we were. Unfortunately we cannot change the past but the Government and the Minister can seek to make amends tonight and change the present by accepting this motion. The shocking facts are that the State used these women and the State failed to protect these women. The State now has it in its gift to compensate these women. Impíom ar an Aire fáil réidh leis an bpolasaí atá ag an Rialtas mar gheall ar na mná seo agus vótáil anocht ar son an rúin.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Many words and images come to mind when thinking about these institutions. I think of images of cold, thick walls, bars on windows, the smell of bleach and words such as cruelty, sadness, terror, poverty, unhappiness, regret, hunger, brutality, abuse, despair, beatings, imprisonment and silence.

It is now three years since Justice for Magdalenes circulated an apology and redress scheme for survivors. It is 22 months since the Irish Human Rights Commission stated that a statutory inquiry into alleged abuses and provision of redress should begin immediately. It is 15 months since the UN Committee Against Torture detailed that the State should ensure that survivors should obtain redress within one year, but the Government continues to delay in providing all Magdalene victims with redress and, more important, with an apology. The long delay is unacceptable but it is made worse when one considers that survivors of the laundries are elderly and suffering ill health as a result of their forced incarceration and some survivors have been refused pension entitlements by the Department of Social Protection.

Tonight as we discuss this motion we must remember also the survivors of another brutal Christian residential institution who were also failed by the State. The women and children who survived shocking abuse in the Bethany Home are also elderly and they have fought bravely and courageously for an independent inquiry to examine what happened in this residential home, which was open from 1921 to 1972. Earlier this year, when the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill was debated, I strongly argued that separate redress boards should be created for both the Magdalene laundries women and Bethany Home survivors. However, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, refused probably because of the financial cost to the State and also because the Bethany Home was a privately owned mother and baby institution. This does not mean that the State was not complicit; it failed these women and children.

Between 1922 and 1949, more than 220 children died in the Bethany Home and 219 were buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome cemetery. I pass their plot very regularly and cannot understand why this Government will not open an inquiry into how our State failed these defenceless children. That place is a bleak spot with no flowers or markers, no large headstone nor any evidence of the babies and children who passed so quickly through this life. There are no daisies nor anything else there; it is just a patch of ground. I attended the cemetery plot recently in the company of some survivors and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe Costello. I made the point that we have compounded the hurt of these survivors by not including them in redress.

I am reminded of what the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, said when in opposition. At that time she called on the Government to, "do the decent thing and end this outrage." These sentiments were supported by her now Cabinet colleagues. Now these same Members are in a position to do in their own words, "the decent thing", but they are sitting on their hands and refusing to honour their promises to the elderly survivors of this institution.

The list of horrendous abuse in the Bethany Home is long and disturbing, yet we must not shy away from this black episode in the State's history. In October 1939, following an inspection of the Bethany Home it was found that 14 infants had died since the last inspection of the premises and a total of 57 children were living in the home at the time. In the same year, a report from an inspector in Monaghan on children who were boarded out from the Bethany Home found that the children were insufficiently clad, unwashed for weeks and that one sick and neglected child had not had a nappy changed for weeks. Yet the State refused to act. It suppressed the truth and simply ordered the home to stop admitting Catholics. There is evidence that one child died there every three weeks between 1935 and 1940. I ask if we can now do the decent thing but I have not heard any answers from the benches opposite. We need to do the decent thing and step up to the plate for these women. Certainly tonight we need to apologise on behalf of the State and we need to bring redress to these elderly people who suffered in these homes.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Tá an rúin seo an tábhachtach ar fad le haghaidh an daonra, go háirithe mná sa sochaí. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to discuss this incredibly important issue and to speak on behalf of a group of very brave and strong people, those who survived what I have little doubt is the worst injustice ever visited on Irish people by other Irish people. The story of the Magdalene laundries is a kind of horrific catalogue of grinding injustice and every new piece of information still shocks us, despite all that has been uncovered to date. There is no ability to turn away.

As legislators and so-called leaders, we will be nothing but failures, no matter what we achieve otherwise, if we do not do all we can to bring a just and honest close to this most shameful and sad chapter in Irish life. This is a chapter in which only those who suffered at the hands of the laundries can really be called innocent. The description of "laundry" or "institution", should possibly be banned from use in the discussion these places. We should call them what they were, prisons. They were not prisons for criminals but for innocent women and children.

Moreover, their only crime was their gender, for which they were subjected to the hatred, fear and disrespect of both church and State. It would be convenient for us to shift the blame entirely onto the church and the religious orders which ran the laundries. The bottom line, however, is that the State which funded these institutions, directly and indirectly, must also bear the guilt. Silence, apathy and collaboration are not the deeds of the innocent. The reality is that the State allowed the Catholic Church free rein for many years. While there were decent and genuine people among the clergy, it is an undeniable fact that the church in this country was riddled with individuals who lacked the most basic humanity and saw fit to treat women and children, in particular, as nothing more than property - useful in their way but ultimately deserving of hatred, violence and abuse.

Despite being designated as factories where clothes were washed for external use, the State failed utterly in its obligations to inspect the laundries. The Factories Act 1955 stipulated that all operations covered by the Act were required to follow health and safety regulations and abide by employment law, as well as being subject to State inspection to ensure conditions were in order. None of these requirements was upheld because the Magdalene prisons were above the law. None of the ten laundries operating in the State was inspected, despite very high inspection rates for other factories. It is difficult to accept that there was no concerted decision not to inspect the laundries knowing, as we do, what would have been found and the trouble it would have caused. In response to a recent parliamentary question as to why the institutions had not been inspected, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, offered the quip that entitlement and requirement were not the same. That is not good enough.

What will the Government do for the people who suffered at the hands of the State in this manner? In 2010 a former Minister for Education and then Deputy, Michael Woods, tipped his hat to the victims in the debate on the establishment of the residential institutions redress scheme but offered nothing by way of a genuine response to their just campaign for redress. That campaign for justice continues today. A committee has been set up to establish the extent of State involvement, by now a well established fact. I wish the committee well in its work, but it will not offer any resolution. The bottom line is that the State failed utterly in its duty of care to these women and girls. Even worse, it co-operated in their prosecution. These citizens were kidnapped, abused, beaten and enslaved and told it was just punishment for their wrongdoing.

I take the opportunity to mention the victims and survivors of Bethany Home. Between 1922 and 1949, more than 220 children died in the care of that institution, 219 of whom were buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome cemetery. Although often forgotten, they are equally deserving of justice. Bethany Home was essentially the Magdalene laundry for Protestant women. Its survivors are entitled to justice and truth and must also receive a State apology and redress.

Throughout the world people remember and memorialise victims of injustice. Monuments are built and plaques and statues erected in order to ensure they are never forgotten and to remind subsequent generations that the crimes visited on the people concerned must never be allowed to recur. The time for prevarication is past. The State must apologise to the victims of the Magdalene laundries and state unequivocally that what happened will never happen again. The nation must act with a humanity and care towards the victims that will make the horrors of the laundries seem even worse by comparison. We must give immediate redress and support to the survivors of these crimes. Táimid ag lorg tacaíocht an Tí le haghaidh an rún seo ar Ghnó Comhaltaí Príobháideacha.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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One of the key issues to be addressed in regard to the Magdalene laundries is the role of the State, which encompasses not only its abdication of responsibility but also its role in covering up the mistreatment and injustice meted out to victims. All aspects of the State's role are set out in a comprehensive report prepared for the interdepartmental Oireachtas committee established to investigate the matter by the Justice for Magdalenes group. Among the disgraceful facts to emerge from that report is the revelation that Departments and public companies utilised the services of the laundries. In fact, Áras an Uachtaráin gave its custom to one of the institutions. It is startling to see that the report documents transactions from as recently as 1980 and 1981.

In its commercial dealing with the laundries the State was effectively utilising the services of indentured servants. In fact, one might use even stronger words to describe the status of the women and girls who worked there. There was also the wider issue of the State's failure to monitor what was going on in the laundries. As in the case of the industrial schools administered by religious orders, this amounted to an effective privatisation of punishment. Moreover, the women sent to the Magdalene laundries and placed under the charge of the nuns who ran them were not guilty of any crime under the law but merely of an offence against perceived social acceptability.

The Irish Human Rights Commission has accepted that the failure on the part of the State to supervise the operation of the laundries amounted to a grave and systematic violation of the victims' rights as provided for under the Constitution. The conditions under which they were made to work violated the European Convention on Human Rights, various United Nations conventions on human rights and the conventions laid down for conditions of employment by the International Labour Organisation. The manner in which these young women were admitted into and detained in custody also violated the provision in Article 40.4.1o of the Constitution that no citizen "shall be deprived of his personal liberty save in accordance with the law". It is not inconceivable that had a case been taken on this basis, the reference to "his" might have been used as an excuse for what amounted to the illegal incarceration as workers without rights of the Magdalene women.

In this context, it is remarkable that during the entire period of their operation, only one laundry - at Sean McDermott Street, which was designated under the Criminal Justice Act 1960 as a remand centre - was legally entitled to detain any person. The treatment endured by the inmates violated international prohibitions on forced labour and degrading treatment, even though the State had ratified the 1930 convention which prohibited the use of "forced or compulsory labour". Even apart from these larger human rights issues, the laundries were in clear violation of domestic law. For example, the provisions of the Factories Acts could and should have been applied and the institutions subjected to regular inspections. If they had been carried out honestly, such inspections would have found the laundries to be in clear violation of the legislation.

What makes the enforced slavery of the women concerned even worse is the fact that the laundries, far from being the charitable institutions they claimed to be, were, in reality, highly profitable businesses. The Justice for Magdalenes report includes the claim by a former manager of the Magdalene laundry in Limerick that it had made a profit of some IR£100,000 in 1976. Not only was this a huge sum of money in those days, it would not be considered a poor return by a local laundry today. This huge profit margin was made possible because the laundry workers were unpaid and without rights. One can conclude that in the course of their operation the Magdalene laundries must have made several millions in profits. In combination with the huge sums accrued by the religious orders in land deals, this makes it a moral imperative that survivors are duly compensated for their labour and loss of freedom and the degradation forced on many of them. Anything less would be an insult to their suffering.

Under the alleged care of these terrible institutions, young women were deprived of their civil rights and used as slaves for the profit and benefit of those who ran them. Another speaker referred last night to an unfortunate young woman who escaped from one of the laundries only to be brought back and brutalised. A relative of mine who tried to escape from an institution was likewise subjected to brutal treatment. There is only one acceptable outcome to all of this, namely, a public apology from the State for what was done to the women concerned.

Compensation must be paid to those who had to endure the loss of their freedom and the injustice of being used as slaves by the State and religious orders. Nothing else will suffice.

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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I am before the House to address this motion on behalf of my colleagues, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch.

I thank Deputies who contributed to this debate yesterday evening and tonight. I have listened carefully and with great interest to what was said and the broad range of views expressed. In particular, I thank Deputy McDonald for her contribution and for rightly affording all of us an opportunity to ensure this issue remains to the fore in our minds. I have great sympathy for the women involved and it is fair to conclude from the contributions to the debate that the House is in broad agreement on this issue. As the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, stated last night, the story of the Magdalene women is one that has been told with a great deal of dignity and they deserve our respect. No one who has met the women or listened to their stories can be anything but impressed by the eloquence of their testimonies. I agree with much of what has been said in that regard.

I assure the House again that the Government has listened carefully to the women and the various groups advocating on their behalf. It is committed to addressing the issues and, unlike its predecessors, took action to put in place a process for doing so. Almost immediately on taking office, we established such a process when we appointed an interdepartmental committee under the independent chairmanship of Senator Martin McAleese. I assure the House that we will see this process through and are fully committed to addressing these issues once the final report has been received. The Government has been conscious at all times of the need to progress these matters as quickly as possible.

As the Minister of State explained last night, the main point behind the amendment is that it is premature to have this debate without having the benefit of Senator McAleese's report and the factual information it will bring. The report, which is being finalised, will help to establish the facts of State involvement, give us a better understanding of what took place and provide for the proper and meaningful response to which the Government is committed.

Deputies will be aware that Senator McAleese was appointed to the chairmanship of the interdepartmental committee to ensure full confidence in its workings and preclude any legitimate issue arising with regard to the committee properly fulfilling its mandate. They will also be aware and appreciate that Senator McAleese has been steadfast and absolute in his commitment to fulfilling that mandate. Under his astute chairmanship, the committee is receiving the full and voluntary co-operation of everyone involved, including Government Departments, agencies, representative and advocacy groups and academics. I also understand the Senator has met with many women who came forward to the committee both here and in England. These women are being listened to and their stories will be told.

Within three months of its establishment, the interdepartmental committee produced an interim report, as requested, and this report has been published. The question of additional resources for the committee was also raised. I understand, however, that it is satisfied that it has available to it the resources needed to complete its task and that the allocation of further resources is not required and would not speed up its work. I also understand Senator McAleese has indicated to the Minister for Justice and Equality that he expects to be in a position to submit a substantial final report in a matter of months and certainly before the end of the year.

While drafting of the final report has begun, I believe relevant records continue to be identified and the interdepartmental committee continues to receive new submissions from representative and advocacy groups, one of which was received as late as 15 August 2012. Before we rush to make judgments, it makes sense to allow time for the committee to consider all the material that has been placed before it.

As the Minister of State noted last night, all the indications are that the report of the interdepartmental committee will enable us to have a meaningful debate on the issues raised by the different groups representing those who have been in Magdalene laundries and provide a proper response. Both the motion and amendment welcome the establishment of the interdepartmental committee, while the latter commits to an open and meaningful response to all the issues once the committee has reported.

As I stated, the Government is conscious of the need to progress matters as quickly as possible. The only difference between us and the Deputies opposite is that we will not pre-empt the report of the committee by making decisions or assertions of fact. When we have the report, which will be before the end of the year, we will all be better informed and in a position to provide for a proper response based on the findings produced. I commend the Government amendment to the House.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. It is a matter of urgency that the matter before us is addressed. We are simply seeking to have an acknowledgement from all Members of the House that supports must be put in place urgently for the aging survivors of the Magdalene laundries. Thereafter, we must have an open and meaningful debate on the issues of an apology, redress and restorative justice.

We will never know the full story of the injustices, suffering and sheer torment experienced by the women and girls incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries. This injustice was exacerbated and compounded by their exclusion from the residential institutions redress scheme. The Magdalene laundries and Bethany homes are another dark chapter in the litany of abuses perpetuated on the women of Ireland by the churches with State complicity, yet no apology has been forthcoming from the State for the terror inflicted on the women in question. It is astonishing that not one representative of the Government Departments and statutory bodies which had a hand in ensuring the involuntary servitude of women has ever felt the need to apologise. The State was complicit in the Magdalene laundries and questions remain about the role of the Garda Síochána, which returned Magdalene runaways to the laundries by the hair on their heads. Notwithstanding this, the Government sees fit to inform the House that an interdepartmental committee is examining the issue.

I am not a spokesperson for the Magdalene women but someone who believes in justice. I am also an elected representative who has a role in holding the Government to account. The Government's approach is not good enough. Having spent years and in some cases decades in incarceration, slaving, cleaning and toiling to keep religious orders as profitable industries, the Magdalene survivors are spending the rest of their lives shamed and stigmatised by a State that did not care. Many of them are elderly and suffering ill health as a result of the treatment they experienced. There are at least 30,000 Magdalene survivors.

It is a tragedy of epic proportions that no member of the religious orders and no representative of the State has been held to account for the torture inflicted on what were described as "fallen women". Even today, questions need to be asked about the religious orders and their motivations. Two of the religious congregations which ran the Magdalene laundries, the Good Shepherd Sisters and Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, receive funding from the Departments of Justice and Equality and Health to work with women involved in prostitution, while other organisations which promote women's rights have had their funding slashed. One could be forgiven for asking if it is still the official view of the State that there are fallen women out there. Both of the religious congregations to which I referred have refused to meet the Justice for Magdalenes group, yet we are expected to believe it is appropriate that they are entrusted with caring for and advocating on behalf of vulnerable women.

It is interesting that the State was run for decades on the basis of a Constitution framed around God and Christian values. The way in which the Magdalene institutions were run, ignored by the apparatus of the State, could not be further from the teachings of Christ. The Magdalene laundries were evil. What we had in this State were anti-Christian institutions posturing as Christians. Not only did they turn a blind eye to the disgusting enslavement of women and children, they also preached moral values to others, upheld conservative, right-wing establishment politics, and told people to keep their heads down and not question educated professionals.

The answer they have for our people is so profound but they could not have been further away from the teachings of Christ. Each and every one of them should be ashamed of themselves. The institutions which covered this up and utilised religion and Christ's teachings to enslave and hold our people down should be ashamed of themselves too. I have had the honour of knowing genuine Christians who served overseas on the missions and defended oppressed people. They too were let down and failed by their hierarchy. This is the great shame of an institution which used the teachings of Christ to oppress their people and support institutions of government to do likewise. Shame on anyone who was involved in that and calls themselves a Christian.

Those of us who actually have a faith in Christ need to have these conversations. We are ashamed of those institutions which used Christ's name to uphold disgusting acts, to defend right-wing, conservative politics and to oppress our people for decades. It is high time this issue was resolved with the obfuscation and stalling ended. We know what happened in the Magdalene laundries was slavery and is a black stain on our people's conscience. The Government must do the right thing and put in place the procedures for justice. We can then wait for the report of Senator McAleese, in whom we all have great faith.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I can only imagine the fear, the isolation, the helplessness and, perhaps for many, the final submission felt by those women and girls incarcerated in the Magdalene laundries. While I can only imagine the nightmare, I know there are many who live with the reality. I am also conscious as we debate this motion that there are women and their families watching this debate for whom the Magdalene laundries is not a horror story but an actual horror that visited itself upon them directly, a horror with ongoing consequences.

I find it unacceptable the Minister suggests the motion put down by Sinn Féin is premature. These sites of horror operated with the connivance and under the nose of the State from 1922 until 1996. Let no one pretend we did not know. We knew but we chose to look away. The motion tabled by Sinn Féin, with the support of our Independent colleagues and Fianna Fáil, relies entirely on facts established and aired in the public arena. There is no conjecture in it. It is a fact that committal to and residence in the laundries was not voluntary. It is a fact the State interacted actively with the laundries. It is a fact these laundries, although private institutions, enjoyed considerable financial State support while women and girls were enslaved to work without pay. It is a fact the State deliberately failed to inspect these laundries. The trauma and the stigma endured by detainees which lives with them to this day is also a fact. These are women who are aged and many of whom are ill.

While few Members have sought to dispute these facts, I am sorry the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, did so last evening. In defending the Government's position, she cited the McAleese committee as the Minister of State, Deputy McGinley, just did. She said the committee would produce what she called the first comprehensive and objective insight into the laundries. The Minister deliberately misrepresented the committee's remit. It is tasked with establishing the extent of State involvement in these laundries, not the fact. The Minister spoke as if there were no established facts, no survivors' testimonies, or no documented evidence of abuse or State interaction. Shame on her.

There was worse to come. She also stated, "As far as I am aware, allegations of abuse in Magdalene laundries have never been the subject of scrutiny by the courts, a commission of investigation or tribunal of inquiry, so the facts remain undetermined." The hand-wringing Minister cast a doubt over the validity of survivors' testimonies because the women did not go to court. She knows right well why there were no court cases. She is fully aware of the reasons women who were brutalised, stigmatised and fearful did not go to the courts. She is more than aware why cases could not now be taken because the Statute of Limitations prevents a survivor, even if she were so minded, from going to the courts now. The Minister knew all of this but came into the Chamber last evening to deliver the Government's line without skipping a beat. With all due respect to the Minister of State across the floor now, Deputy McGinley, he did the same this evening. He claimed the women have been listened to. Have they? Has the story really been listened to?

The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, advised us not to leap to conclusions. I want to draw some conclusions about the behaviour of the State and the Government in this matter. In May 2011 the Government, represented by the then Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality, appeared before the UN committee against torture. Its approach was disgraceful, defensive and stonewalling while its submission was misleading or, at the very least, incomplete. The State claimed the laundries were private institutions, voluntarily occupied and outside the remit of State responsibility, bar one exception. The Government was giving purchase to a lie that tried to convince us that nothing was known about the enslavement and brutality visited on women in these institutions. That impression was a lie then and is a lie now.

The Government tells us it does not want to pre-empt the McAleese committee. The motion does not ask it to do that. Instead, it recognises and welcomes the work of Senator McAleese but states clearly justice for the women does not need to be put on hold. In fact, the motion insists justice for the women cannot and will not be put on hold. The McAleese committee can proceed with its work but it does not stop the State from acknowledging the survivors, apologising to them and making arrangements for the basic support services they need now.

Those on the Government backbenches will probably choose the path of least resistance and follow their Whips to vote against this motion. That is their prerogative. However, in making that choice, they will be co-opted into the defensive denial mode of the Government.

In making that choice they will allow this debate to draw to a conclusion with no Government acknowledgement of the damage done to the women or of the failures of the State. They will leave these women yet again with no apology, no commitment to pension rights, no redress or the small comfort of knowing that this Dáil will ensure the provision of supports needed by these women here and now.

Kicking the can down the road is an expression often used to describe political manoeuvres and delay. Deploying this tactic on the Magdalene survivors is unworthy of this Dáil and its Members. I call on the Government to withdraw its amendment and support the original motion. If my plea falls on deaf ears, know this: by sheer force of numbers the Government side has succeeded only in doing the wrong thing.

I commend the survivors of the Magdalene laundries. Their stories are on the record. We hear them and we believe them. We cannot give them back their childhood, youth or their lives but we can say that they are due a full apology, redress, pension rights and a full affirmation of their innocence and their good name. I put it to the survivors and to those on the Government benches that we will not rest until the justice that these women deserve is delivered. The Government should do the right thing, set aside its stonewalling amendment and support this motion. It is the least these women should expect from their elected parliamentarians.