Fianna Fail to Table Motion ...

By Ciaran Hanna
Inside Ireland
February 10, 2013

http://insideireland.ie/2013/02/10/fianna-fail-to-table-motion-calling-for-full-and-unqualified-apology-to-women-of-magdalene-laundries-84021/

The last Magdalene asylum in Ireland, in Waterford, closed in 1996. The congregations which ran them were the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, the Religious Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

Fianna Fáil said they will table a Dáil Motion this week calling for a ‘full and unqualified apology’ to the women of the Magdalene Laundries.

The party responded following the Taoiseach’s initial reaction to the report by outgoing Senator Martin McAleese’s committee, which was published on Tuesday 5th February.

The committee was set up to inquire into the Magdalene laundries and the report found ‘clear evidence of state involvement’ in the religious run laundries.

Senator McAleese and his committee were asked to outline the extent of state involvement and knowledge of the women in these laundries and noted that there was a legal basis for the way the state operated.

In each of the five categories it examined, it found evidence of state involvement, including the 26% of women who werereferred to the laundries by the State.

Fianna Fáil said they will also call for the establishment of a dedicated unit within the Department of Justice to ‘co-ordinate the State’s response’ to the McAleese report, including all forms of redress for the survivors.

Government’s response was ‘deeply disappointing’

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Justice Niall Collins said it is important that the issue of an apology for these women is addressed in a ‘timely way in the Oireachtas’.

“Unfortunately, the Government’s response to the report was deeply disappointing.

“The Magdalene women and their families, who had waited too long for vindication, are left feeling angry and let down,” added the TD.

“This Fianna Fáil motion will provide an important opportunity for the Taoiseach, the Justice Minister and the Government to do what they should have done last week and apologise to these women on behalf of the State,” concluded the Deputy.

Labour TD Gerald Nash said that any apology, when it is forthcoming, ‘will be given by the Taoiseach as the head of government and it will reflect the views of the entire government’.

The Louth and Meath East TD added:

“We felt it was incumbent on the members of the parliamentary Labour party yesterday to make this move to express our view that a full apology is required.”

Young Fine Gael calls for Immediate Apology

Young Fine Gael called on An Taoiseach to issue an immediate apology, on behalf of the State, to women who have ‘suffered in Magdalene Laundries because of the actions of the state’.

Patrick Molloy, President of Young Fine Gael said the government ‘failed in its duty to apologise to the women who suffered horrible and harrowing experiences whilst in these Magdalene laundries’.

“The excuse of needing more time and having to ‘digest’ the report will simply not change the realities reported by survivors and verified in the report”, concluded Patrick Molloy.

‘Putting our own house in order’

MEP for Northern Ireland, Martina Anderson said if governments and politicians are serious about eradicating forced-labour, subordination, and gender discrimination on a global scale, we must start by ‘putting our own house in order first’.

“A good start would be an official, unequivocal condemnation of and apology for what occurred in the Magdalen Laundries and other domestic institutions.

“In the Dáil debate is in two weeks time, I sincerely hope to hear the Irish government deliver a full apology, and compensation scheme, as well as a redress system for the thousands of victims of these institutions,” concluded the Sinn Féin MEP.

Hindus want Ireland to offer official state apology

The President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, said in a statement from America, that it was a ‘moral obligation of Irish government’ to respond to the report and ‘start the healing process’.

“Magdalene laundries were a dark stain on the face of Ireland and Europe”, Rajan Zed added.

Religious orders and state must pay back-wages and compensation

A People Before Profit TD said there must be a ‘full official apology from the Irish state and Catholic Church and it must come now’.

“A distinct compensation scheme for all Magdalene survivors must be put in place immediately”, said Joan Collins.

“There must be a transparent and non-adversarial compensation process for all, with pensions, lost wages, health and housing services and redress accounted for.

“These women worked for nothing for years – it’s time to pay them what they are owed,” added the Dublin South–Central TD.

Socialist Party TD Clare Daly said the religious orders must ‘bear the majority of the cost of back-pay and compensation to these women’.