President 'Moved by Their Story'

By Paddy Agnew
Irish Times
February 7, 2013

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0207/1224329744300.html

President Michael D Higgins has suggested that those who suffered in the Magdalene laundries were due compensation and a State apology.

Speaking in Rome yesterday, he said: "I was always very moved by their story and I am so glad that the facts of what they said, the wrongs committed, have been recognised and are now in print. I think that the Government will announce its response at the end of the debate and I am very happy that this debate is taking place.

"I think the important thing now is to recognise all the different elements that make for an appropriate response. There is the issue of involuntary detention . . . There is the issue of one's labour being taken and perhaps not rewarded, and the issue of information being made available . . .

"But we need a public response, an institutional response and a State response and the State no doubt will make its own decisions and take its own actions."