Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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524. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 168 of 13 October 2015, if she will provide a breakdown, by institution, of the 879 women and girls who died in the Magdalene laundries between 1922 and 1996, given that the McAleese report merely offers a total figure, rather than a breakdown by laundry (details supplied). [37315/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The available statistics are those in the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries - otherwise known as the McAleese Report - which submitted its report to Government in February 2013. That Report is available on my Department's website - www.justice.ie. This Committee no longer exists. As advised in my response to Dáil Question No. 168 of 13th October 2015, the McAleese Report did not try to establish an exact number for deaths that took place in Magdalen Laundries. The Report states that these searches were complex and that there were gaps in available information as well as difficulties with identifying and matching records for a variety of reasons. Further, the Report points out that an examination of grave sites would not in itself provide a definitive figure for those who died in Magdalen laundries. Specific issues that had been raised around death registration, burials and exhumations are addressed in Chapter 16 of Report.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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525. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 168 of 13 October 2015, the way the interdepartmental committee arrived at the conclusion, at chapter 16, Summary of Findings, that 879 deaths represents 8.8% of the estimated number of admissions to the Magdalene laundries, given that 879 is not 8.8% of any of the three total figures cited by the McAleese report (details supplied). [37316/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries - otherwise known as the McAleese Report - submitted its report to Government in February 2013. That Report is available on my Department's website - www.justice.ie. The Committee, with Dr. McAleese as its independent Chair, was established in July 2011 and no longer exists. I can advise the Deputy that the Committee's Report did not try to establish a definitive number for deaths that took place in Magdalen Laundries. However, in its summary of findings for Chapter 16 it states that " his Chapter applies only to the small number of women who remained in the Magdalen Laundries until their death or who, after death elsewhere, were buried there. These cases represent approximately 8.8% of the estimated number of women to have been admitted to the Magdalen Laundries".

I understand that the main database used was based on congregations' records and was limited to 14,607 recorded admissions to Magdalen Laundries from 1922 to closure of the last Magdalen Laundry in 1996. Because of multiple entries the total number of individuals who entered in the period in question was estimated at 10,012 - see Chapter 7 para.34. The number of deaths occurring in the Laundries from 1922 was estimated at 879 which is approximately 8.8% of 10,012.