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	Magdalene Laundries Press Releases magdalenelaundries.com September 18, 2009 http://www.magdalenelaundries.com/press_releases.htm [Draft Magdalene Redress Act Proposal] [Response from Mr. Batt O'Keeffe, Minister for Education & Science] Justice of Magdalenes has received official notification that the Irish State will neither apologise to survivors of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries nor establish a distinct redress scheme to provide justice for these victims of institutional abuse Mr. Batt O'Keeffe, Minister for Education, was responding to draft language towards an Apology and distinct redress scheme circulated by Justice for Magdalenes to all members of Dail Eireann in early July, 2009. The minister responded in a letter directed to Mr. Tom Kitt, TD, who made representations on our behalf. The Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) members are deeply appreciative of Mr. Kitt's efforts. In his letter dated September 4, 2009, Minister O'Keeffe states that, "in terms of establishing a distinct scheme for former employees of the Magdalen laundries, the situation in relation to children who were taken into the laundries privately or who entered the laundries as adults is quite different to persons who were resident in State-run institutions." An exception to this, he said, would be children who were transferred from a State-regulated institution to a Magdalen laundry and suffered abuse while resident there. "The justification for this [latter] provision is that the State was still responsible for the welfare and protection of children transferred to a Magdalen laundry from a State-regulated institution provided they had not been officially discharged from the scheduled institution," he said. Coming a few short months after passage in the Dail of a motion to "Cherish All of the Children of the Nation Equally," Justice for Magdalenes challenges the Minister's attempt to limit the state's liability for abuses of children in Magdalen institutions according to the parameters of the Residential Institutions Redress Act (2002). The Constitution of the Republic of Ireland (Art. 42, Sec. 3, sub. 2) defines the State's obligation to ensure that all children receive a basic education. Our organisation has been contacted by a number of survivors in recent months, all of whom were put into a Magdalene institution as children, some as young as 12 and 14 years old. These survivors were denied an education among other things. They are now denied redress because the Minister for Education continues to deny the State's obligation to protect their rights of citizens of the state. Justice for Magdalenes rejects as insulting and inaccurate the Minister's characterisation of survivors as "former employees of the Magdalen Laundries." Professor Jim Smith, author of Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment, said, "The women in these abusive institutions were never ‘employees.' They never received payment for their labour and they were denied many of their basic human rights. However, if the Minister insists that they were "employees" then surely the State had a responsibility to ensure that the laundries complied with the Factories Acts in terms of safe work practices, fair pay, regular work days, etc." Justice for Magdalenes also rejects that Minister's assertion that "[t]he State did not refer individuals to Magdalen Laundries nor was it complicit in referring individuals to them." The Irish courts routinely referred women to various Magdalen laundries upon receiving suspended sentences for a variety of crimes. These women were escorted by the State's Probation Officers upon entry to the Laundries. There is no record of the Probation Officers checking to ensure such women were released upon the end of their suggested period of confinement. The Justice Act, 1960 (sec. 9, sub section 1) also provided for the use of the Sean Mac Dermott Street Magdalene Asylum (known as the Gloucester Street Laundry) as a remand home for young women awaiting trial. Section 14 of the same act empowered the Minister for Finance to pay a capitation grant for women so-referred. The Minister for Education can refer both matters to the Minister for Justice who is in a position to verify such historic practices. The aforementioned practices, among a number of others, make manifest the State's complicity, collusion and active participation in the operation and function of Ireland's Magdalen Laundries. Furthermore, JFM demands that the Minister for Justice introduce legislation for a distinct redress scheme for survivors of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries as outlined by JFM and submitted to all politicians in Dail Eireann on July 3. JFM will also make available a copy of Minister Batt O'Keeffe's reply to Mr. Kitt upon request.
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