Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, to the House and thank him for recognising the notice of this Adjournment matter. I thank the Leader for facilitating the change from three matters being heard on the Adjournment to four matters being heard per sitting. Matters on the Adjournment are very important and this matter is being afforded particular recognition and respect by the Minister coming here this afternoon. I thank him for attending and I hope we can have many debates like this.

This issue, relating to the Magdalene laundries, is of grave concern. A recent statement by the United Nations Committee Against Torture indicated it was the responsibility of the Irish State to investigate abuses in the Magdalene laundries under Articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations convention against torture and that there should be a way under Article 14 to ensure redress for survivors. The report was published this week by the committee, which monitors states' compliance with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. A Government delegation answered questions on its record at public hearings in Geneva last month, which was the first time Ireland has taken part in monitoring by the committee.

The committee's recommendations are not legally binding but carry moral authority, particularly for countries such as Ireland that pride themselves on their record of promoting human rights. There is also our role in the United Nations to consider. The committee, which is staffed by human rights experts from the United Nations, expressed in the report "grave concern" at the failure by the State to protect the girls and women who were involuntarily confined between 1922 and 1996 in the Magdalene laundries. It concluded the State's failure to regulate and inspect these institutions, where it is alleged physical, emotional and other abuses were committed, amounted to "breaches of the convention". It also strongly criticised the State for failing to investigate allegations of abuse at the laundries. The report recommended the State carry out a "prompt, independent and thorough investigation" of the alleged committal of women to Magdalene laundries. It indicated that in appropriate cases, it should "prosecute and punish the perpetrators with penalties commensurate with the gravity of the offences committed". It also indicated that the State should ensure all victims obtain redress and have an enforceable right to compensation, including the means for a full rehabilitation.

In its submission to the committee, the Government stated that the vast majority of women entered the laundries "voluntarily", which is an exaggeration, "or if they were minors with the consent of their parents". Such claims can be easily refuted. The State argued that the alleged events happened "a long time ago" in private institutions and the only situation where women were detained in a laundry by law applied to one institution. It was argued that "we have found no evidence of any complaint by or mistreatment of women remanded there." The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, stated he would examine the committee's report with his Cabinet colleagues.

Although not a Minister at the time, Deputy Shatter stated in Dáil Éireann on 17 December 2009:

Does the Taoiseach intend to introduce legislation in the new year to amend the redress board legislation to extend it to those who suffered barbaric cruelty in the Magdalene laundries? The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform now has irrefutable evidence that this State and the courts colluded in sending young women to what were then known as the Magdalene asylums. They ended up in the Magdalene laundries and were treated appallingly. Some of them have never recovered from the manner in which they were treated and their lives have been permanently blighted. Initially in this House the Minister for Education and Science denied that the State had any involvement in this. There is now absolutely irrefutable evidence as a consequence of court records and files that have been examined in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform that the State was directly complicit in many women being placed in these totally inappropriate circumstances.

That is from the Dáil record. The Minister's motto is: "Look forward with hope." As I said before, I hope we can look forward with hope in this regard. Deputy Shatter now has responsibility as the Minister for Justice and Equality, and it is ironic in this political business that something said by an Opposition spokesperson may come back to haunt that Deputy. I ask the Minister to stand over his words.

The current Government may argue that its predecessor did not take action but the previous Government made a case to the United Nations Commission and we are now going on those recommendations. The previous Government did not have such recommendations.

I received correspondence from Mr. James Smith, associate professor at the English department and the Irish studies programme at Boston College. He outlined that there were ten of these institutions, including the Sisters of Mercy in Galway and Dún Laoghaire, the Sisters of Charity in Donnybrook in Dublin and Peacock Lane in Cork, the Good Shepherd Sisters in Waterford, New Ross, Limerick and Sunday's Well in Cork, and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge in High Park, Drumcondra, Dublin, and Sean McDermott Street, also called Gloucester Street, Dublin.

I am a former pupil of the Convent of Mercy and I have nothing but the height of praise for it. There were many wonderful nuns operating in the system but young girls were also treated appallingly by the State. Many of these are now dead without having seen justice and many were institutionalised all their lives, with the saddest of stories to report. I ask that the Government be very fair to those who are left. It will have the support of every Member in both Houses if it issues an apology to those women, carries out whatever inquiries are necessary and provides compensation that would be of assistance.