Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like most Senators, I am hopeful that the Taoiseach will rise later today to give a full and unequivocal apology not just to the residents of the Magdalen laundries but to the families of those who are unfortunately deceased, and that he will announce that full and proper redress will be given to the residents and their families. I rarely find myself disagreeing with Senator Norris but I am afraid I must partly disagree with him on this point. I accept that there were many instances in which families gave up members to the laundries in the hope that they would receive an education and achieve betterment. We must face up to the reality that we used both State and other institutions to house those who were considered undesirable or were simply unwanted. I am talking about prisons, county homes, institutional schools and places such as the Magdalen laundries. We had no official statistics on homelessness in this country before the 1980s. This was because those who were homeless were considered vagrants and were housed in prisons or county homes. Giving a full apology and granting full redress to the residents of the Magdalen laundries is, for our society, a step on the way to acknowledging the role we played in shelving our responsibility towards those others in our society.

I wish to raise one issue with the Leader. It relates to the destruction of records in Government Departments, particularly those in the Department of Education and Skills, which has had such a detrimental effect on the lives of people and stood in the way of their having basic knowledge about their past and their lives and being able to seek redress. When we have the debate on the Magdalen laundries, perhaps we could consider that important issue.