Calls for Full State Apology Mount As Shatter Asks for Time to Think

By Michael Lavery
The Herald
February 6, 2013

http://www.herald.ie/news/calls-for-full-state-apology-mount-as-shatter-asks-for-time-to-think-29052431.html

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny, pictured, was under increasing pressure today to issue a full State apology.

Survivors expressed their disappointment and anger at the Taoiseach's response to the report's findings.

The issue was due to be raised in the Dail today and at Fine Gael and Labour parliamentary party meetings this evening.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter said today the Government needed to reflect on all the information in the report.

The State needed to see what could be done to help individuals whose lives had been "blighted and burdened" by long stays in the laundries, he said.

The State needed to see what could be done to help individuals whose lives had been "blighted and burdened" by long stays in the laundries, he said.

"It requires careful consideration on how we move forward," Mr Shatter said on RTE's Morning Ireland.

The report was a 'watershed' that cast light on areas in Irish society that had been in shadow, he added.

But Claire McGettrick, spokeswoman for the Justice for Magdalenes group, said politicians like Mr Shatter "had used these women like political footballs while in opposition".

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"It is cynical now to come along and refuse to apologise," Ms McGettrick said. The women were "used" by politicians while they were in opposition, she said.

The group said the Taoiseach's Dail statement fell "far short of the full and sincere apology deserved by the women who were incarcerated against their will".

The Labour Women group, said an apology was something the entire nation owed to the Magdalene women.

"The Magdalene Laundries did not operate in secrecy," the group said.

"Their existence was not challenged. An apology should be something the entire nation owes to the Magdalene girls and women," a spokesperson said.

Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said she was deeply disappointed by the Government's response.