Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

Within the next few weeks I understand the redress board will stop taking applications from people entitled to compensation for abuse suffered in various institutions. One of the points made very strongly to us by a number of people all over the country is the restriction on applying to the board being experienced by many of the people who were resident in Magdalen laundries. On the basis of correspondence I received from the Minister, the Department has decided that the laundries were different from some of the institutions covered by the Act, in that some of the people who worked in them did not come directly from institutions. They might have been over 16 years of age when they were placed in laundries and, therefore, the State does not have responsibility for them.

However, I ask that this whole issue be debated by the House as a matter of urgency. People who watched the various programmes over the past few years, on the Magdalen laundries in particular, would be horrified to know that some, if not most, of the victims of abuse in those institutions were not eligible for compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board because of the way the Act is written.

The State has a responsibility to these unfortunate people. If the Act needs to be looked at again, to be broadened or a new compensation system has to be put in place, that should be done. There is a moral obligation to try to include the maximum number of victims. All of these people suffered horrendously, through no fault of their own. It is dreadfully unfair if the redress board is not empowered to assist and compensate them.