merrion street

Justice Minister Alan Shatter today announced that the Government has approved publication of the Final Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee, chaired by Senator Martin McAleese, set up to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries.

Read the full report here.

Minister Shatter said:

The Report published today, which runs to over 1,000 pages, is a very comprehensive one. It is the result of both an unprecedented trawl of State records and a full examination of the records of the Religious Congregations which operated the Magdalen Laundries...

The Report tells a complex story, spanning the decades from the establishment of the State onwards. We now know that approximately 10,000 women entered Magdalen Laundries since 1922, through a whole range of different routes. These included State referrals as well as placements of women by many others, including significant numbers by families. We now also know that just over 60% of these women spent one year or less in the Laundries...

I commend the courage of those who were residents in the Laundries who gave their time and told their stories to the Committee and I thank them for their cooperation.

The Minister continued:

I hope that publication of this Report will be of comfort to the women directly concerned. I appreciate that many women have lived their lives under a cloud because of the stigma that has attached to their residence in the Magdalen Laundries, irrespective of the circumstances which resulted in their admission and regardless of how much time they spent there. This stigma was undeserved and its removal is long overdue.

I am sorry that the State did not do more and the Government recognises that the women alive today who are still affected by their time in the Laundries deserve the best supports that the State can provide.

I wish to thank Senator McAleese in particular for acting as Chair of this Committee...

It is intended that there will be a debate in the Dáil on the Report in two weeks time and, pending that Debate, the Report will be given full consideration by Members of Cabinet who received it this morning and who were briefed on its contents by Senator McAleese.

Read the full press release here.