Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this report. It is long overdue. I pay tribute to Senator Ó Murchú, who summed it up very well. In fairness, the Government should have taken two weeks to consider the matter before dealing with it comprehensively, rather than having the report published at this stage. The demand was for it to be published as soon as it was made available to the Government. That is what the Government did. Some of those who have come in here to criticise the Taoiseach are members of a party that did absolutely nothing for 14 years when it was in government. Some of those who were detained in Magdalen laundries died during that time. Regardless of what happens now, those people will not receive an apology now because they are not alive. I advise the Senators in question to keep that in mind. Equally, I do not think the party that took 17 years to apologise for the death of a garda is in any position to criticise the Government for not dealing with this issue.