Findings Contradict Previous Claims

By Dearbhail McDonald Legal Editor
Irish Independent
February 6, 2013

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/findings-contradict-previous-claims-3377888.html

THE State's "significant" involvement in the admission of young girls and women to Magdalene Laundries contradicts previous claims by the Government that the "vast majority" entered on a voluntary basis or with parental consent.

Two years ago Sean Aylward, inset, then Secretary General of the Department of Justice, told the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) that the vast majority of women who went to Laundries "went there voluntarily or, if they were minors, with the consent of their parents or guardians".

But the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalene Laundries found that more than a quarter of referrals were made or facilitated by the State.