Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 243: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the Act or legislation governing persons who were made serve and spend their time in the Magdalene laundries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47002/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I understand that arrangements were occasionally made under which a female convicted of a criminal offence might be offered the choice of going to a Magdalen laundry rather than serving a prison sentence. Such arrangements had no statutory basis. A person charged with a criminal offence may in certain circumstances be remanded in custody by the courts pending trial or sentencing. The Criminal Justice Act 1960 provided that a person between 16 and 21 years of age who had been charged with criminal offences may be committed to custody to a remand institution (other than a prison) whose use for this purpose has been approved by the Minister. One Magdalen laundry was approved as a remand centre for young women who were aged between 16 and 21 years of age. That was St Mary Magdalen's Asylum, Lower Sean McDermott Street, Dublin.