Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to state how proud and excited I am on behalf of the Labour group to welcome the heartfelt and unreserved apology - a fulsome apology as Senator Darragh O'Brien noted - given by the Taoiseach on behalf of the State to the survivors of the Magdalen laundries. I am really proud that this Government has at last given the long-overdue recognition and acknowledgement of the pain and suffering caused to the women who spent time in the Magdalen laundries. Those laundries, as everyone is aware, operated for 74 years in this State and successive Governments failed to take any action to acknowledge their existence or State collusion in and facilitation of their existence. I very much welcome the fact that we will have a debate in this House next week and look forward to teasing out some of the issues raised by the McAleese report and what we know of the experiences of women and girls in the laundries. We know that there were not only gender but class issues involved. I wish to say how wonderful it was to see that heartfelt apology given by the Taoiseach, the words of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste and indeed the words of the Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Martin. I acknowledge that he also gave a very important apology on behalf of the Government of which he had been a member, which had failed like so many other governments to take action on this issue. It was a night in which another light was shone into very dark shadows and corners of our past in the same way as we have already acknowledged the abuse suffered by children in industrial schools and reformatories.

Many colleagues have raised a desire to debate the Mangan report with the Minister for Social Protection. She will be in this House next Tuesday so we can debate the issues with her directly as to when she received the report. It is to be published today, as we all know. Judging by what has been said about it, some of its recommendations will deserve some comprehensive debate in this House. In particular, I note Dan O'Brien's analysis in today's edition of The Irish Times which is really pertinent about the levels of child benefit and welfare payments directed towards children we have had in Ireland for many years, which have been high by international standards yet the outcomes have been very poor by international standards when one looks at our child poverty rates. We need to look at how we can best tackle child poverty in a meaningful way through social welfare payments. I pay tribute to the Minister for Social Protection who, since she took office, has expressed a desire to reform the system in a meaningful way to ensure better outcomes not just for child benefit but for other social protection payments.