Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom moladh a thabhairt don Phápa Beinidict as ucht an cinneadh cróga agus ceannródaíoch a ghlac sé inné. Guím chuile rath air agus ar na cairdinéil a bheidh ag roghnú duine le teacht i gcomharbacht air.

It also is important that we have a debate on the Magdelen laundries report. It is clear from the report that the State was complicit in what was happening in those homes. There was a meeting with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste yesterday and it is important that we find out what is to come of it. No doubt an apology is warranted and it is only a question of when it should happen. Then we need to look at the other series of necessary discussions on recompense for those who were in those institutions, as many of them are elderly.

There is a report from Accord, the marriage counselling service, reported in the news today, which states that there has been a huge increase in the demand for marriage counselling over the past year. The service has dealt with 6,536 couples in 2012 and the amount of counselling increased to 50,422 hours. An interesting part of the report listed the reasons for the increase. Some 58% of the couples cited financial difficulties as a problem, 82% stated they were suffering from stress and anxiety, 59% stated emotional abuse and 51% stated they were suffering from depression. An addiction counsellor to whom I spoke recently told me that there has been a huge increase in the number of referrals of persons suffering from alcohol addiction, drug addiction, etc. It is clear that the austerity imposed on families is having a huge effect and its social consequences is totally uncosted. We should have a debate on the social cost of austerity, particularly on families, whether they be married couples or any other type of family unit. We need to count the cost of the austerity cuts made in budgets in a social sense as well as in pounds, shillings and pence.