merrion street

Today is a very important day for former residents of the Magdalen Laundries. It is the day when the Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, acknowledged their hurt and apologised for their suffering as a result of their being admitted to and working in a Madgalene Laundry and the stigma many of them have felt throughout their lives. It is the day when the State acknowledged the extent to which time spent in the Laundries tragically blighted the lives of so many. It is the day when the State is finally opening it’s heart and accepting it’s moral duty to those who felt abandoned and lost and believed they had no future.

Dr. McAleese, in the introduction to his Report, says that, for many years, the chronicle of the Magdalen Laundries was characterised by secrecy, silence and shame.

And so I want to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to the women of the Magdalen Laundries who began a journey a long time ago to have the truth of what happened told and acknowledged. There must have been times on that journey when they wondered if it was ever going to end, if indifference and evasion were the only responses they would receive.

With courage and tenacity, they persisted. Due to their efforts, the veil of secrecy surrounding the laundries has at long last been lifted and it can never now be replaced.

I do not believe that this is a day for recriminations about past failures to respond to these women’s quest to establish the truth. I merely want to record that, upon my appointment as Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, I was determined our Government would address the wrong done to those consigned to the Magdalen Laundries and determined to see this day come. I think we will all accept that the work done by Dr McAleese, and all those who assisted him, has been vital in allowing us to get where we are today. I am deeply grateful that he accepted my invitation to head a Committee that would once and for all establish the truth of the State’s involvement in the laundries. As I said in the House last week, I am personally very grateful for the calm compassion with which he approached his task. I undertook in the House that we would publish the Report once we had it and then consider our response. That is what the last fortnight has been about- and we owed it to the women concerned to read and fully understand this story before responding.

While today is primarily about acknowledging and seeking to make amends for the hurt experienced by the extraordinary women, some of whom are with us this evening, we would be doing a great disservice to ourselves and to future generations if we did not try to learn lessons from what happened.

For decades our society was prepared to use institutions including but not limited to the Magdalen Laundries to deal with a host of problems and perceived problems. Apart from the girls and women placed in the Laundries by the State, the range of purposes for which society used the Magdalen Laundries can also be seen in the Report -

- some were young girls rejected by their foster parents when maintenance from the authorities ceased;

- some were young women who had been orphaned or who were in abusive or neglectful homes;

- others were women with either mental or physical disabilities;

- others still were simply poor or homeless;

- and many girls and women were placed in the laundries by their own families, for reasons that we may never know or fully understand but which the Report indicates 'included the socio-moral attitudes of the time as well as familial abuse'.

The women's accounts as cited in the Report describe the laundries as cold, harsh and lonely places. Sadly, this reflects a truth we must all recognise, that Ireland itself, for many decades, could be a cold and harsh place for the vulnerable among us.

That is not for a moment to suggest that what went on in the Laundries was acceptable or to minimise what was endured by girls and women there. But, if we are to learn what we can from what happened, we must not blind ourselves to what are, we hope, the past realities of Irish society.

Indeed, the Report found that a significant number of women admitted themselves to the Laundries voluntarily. Presumably this was because they had nowhere else to turn, or because they felt that life would be better there than anything else which society offered. It is tragic to think of those women and the choices they faced- but this again is a reality that we must reflect on.

Dr McAleese points out at the very start of the Report that there is no single or simple story of the Magdalen laundries. Over 10,000 women are known to have entered the laundries from the foundation of the State in 1922 until the closure of the last laundry in 1996. Each of those girls and women were individuals with their own stories and experiences, before, during and after their time in the Magdalen Laundries. It would be a great injustice to them to define their whole lives by the fact that they were in the Laundries.

There is now an obligation on us to address the women’s needs arising from the hurt they experienced during and due to their time in the laundries.

We wish now not only to acknowledge the experiences many of the women had in these institutions but also to look to addressing their future needs. In particular I want to pursue measures that will promote healing, reconciliation and, insofar as possible, provide closure to them. I do not think that attributing blame or taking an adversarial approach to this issue will promote the well being of the women concerned.

The Taoiseach has gone to some lengths to meet as many of the women concerned as possible. The largest grouping of women are those represented by the Irish Women's Survivors Network based in the UK. The Taoiseach, Minister Lynch and I travelled especially to the UK to meet with this group. In Ireland, he and the Tanaiste met with women represented by the Magdalen Survivors Together and the Taoiseach met also with women currently living in nursing homes or sheltered accommodation under the care of the Religious Congregations.

I had met with many of these women in the past, prior to the establishment of the McAleese Committee, and Dr. McAleese also met with all these women more than once.

I think the concerns they expressed on their own behalf in all of these meetings were quite consistent.

They had felt ignored for many years, and wanted their stories listened to. Through the mechanism of the McAleese Committee established by the Government, the women have had the opportunity to tell their stories, to have them listened to, acknowledged and officially recorded. We have received letters or messages of thanks from both Representative Groups for this, expressing their appreciation for and satisfaction with this process and the manner in which it was conducted.

Another major concern expressed directly by the women themselves was their lasting concern and undeserved sense of shame, due to the stigma they felt attached to them because Magdalen Laundries were associated in the popular mind with what used to be referred to as "fallen women". The facts set out in the McAleese Report clearly address this point and put an end forever to any stigma of this or any other kind.

The question of an apology has now been addressed by the Taoiseach himself. And as Minister for Justice and Equality, I unreservedly endorse that apology.

What remains is the question of what supports should be provided in the future. The Government has decided today to establish a Fund for the benefit of the women who were in these institutions. The Government does not wish to see any of this Fund wasted on lawyer’s fees, nor does it wish to go down the road of any adversarial approach where individual women will have to prove that they were traumatised. What we are concerned about is providing speedy and effective practical help and support. This is also a message we received clearly from the women directly concerned.

The Government have given consideration to a number of purposes that the Fund might be put to.

As I mentioned, the largest single group of women who have come forward are based in the UK and represented by the Irish Women’s Survivors Network. The Irish Survivors Advice and Support Network (ISASN) have worked with and provided advice and support to over 2,000 survivors of industrial schools and laundries. It is now proposed that the Step-by-Step Centre for Irish survivors be established as a Holistic and Person-centred service that not only would offer accessible specialist advice and support to those affected, but also focus on ensuring their future health and well being. The Government has made a decision in principle to pay out of the Fund an initial sum of €250,000 to the UK Step by Step Centre for Irish Survivors of Industrial Schools and the Laundries. I would envisage this payment being made as soon as the legal technicalities have been clarified.

The Fund is aimed at women who spent time in Magdalen laundries. However the stories of a certain number of women who were admitted to and worked in the residential laundry in Stanhope Street in Dublin reflect those of those who were in the Magdalen Laundries. In recognition of that the Government has decided to include those women who worked in the Stanhope Street Laundry without pay within the scope of the Fund.

I know that a number of women and in particular those represented by Magdalen Survivors Together were keen to have some form of memorial for the story of the Magdalen Laundries as we now know it. I believe it is appropriate that the women themselves now consider the nature and location of a memorial they would deem suitable.

The needs of individual women vary considerably and, as I have mentioned, the Government wish to have a system in place that will be open and transparent and at the same time will avoid a complicated administrative system.

While I appreciate that any further lapse of time may not be very welcome, I hope, on balance, they can see the advantages in our decision to appoint an independent person to advise on these matters in a relatively short time-frame.

To that end the Government has appointed retired High Court Judge and current President of the Law Reform commission Mr Justice Quirke to examine how, taking into account the McAleese Report, the Government might best provide supports (including health services such as medical cards, psychological and counselling services and other welfare needs) for the women who need such supports as a result of their experiences.

Mr Justice Quirke is being asked to advise on the establishment of a Scheme under the Fund (to operate on a non-adversarial basis) to make payments to individuals from the Fund. This will include identifying the criteria and factors to be taken into account (such as work undertaken in the Laundries for no remuneration). He will advise on the operation of the Fund and, in particular, the nature and amount of payments to be made out of the Fund. He will further set the procedure for the determination of applications in a manner that ensures the monies in the Fund are directed only to the benefit of eligible applicants and not on legal fees and expenses.

Mr Justice Quirke is being asked to report back within three months. Everyone concerned is anxious to avoid unnecessary delays and I share this concern. For that reason, I have instructed officials in my Department to start the process now in anticipation of the entry into operation of the fund. To this end, with effect from tomorrow, people may contact my Department to register their interest in being considered to receive benefits or supports from the Fund when it enters into operation. This will allow people time to gather the necessary basic documentation that will be required to verify their identity and their stay in one of the relevant institutions. It may also give some indication of the numbers who have an interest in such a fund.

The contact details for this will be as follows:

Magdalen Laundry Fund

c/o Department of Justice and Equality

Montague Court

Montague Street

Dublin 2

Tel. 01-476 8649

e-mail info@idcmagdalen.ie

web sites: www.idcmagdalen.ie www.justice.ie

My Department will also be in touch with the Representative Groups on this matter.

It will be a matter for Mr Justice Quirke to decide how he will carry out his task. He will get whatever assistance he needs from the relevant Government Departments and no doubt will take into consideration the views expressed by representative and advocacy groups.

We are determined that the money in question will be solely for the benefit of the women, not for the legal profession or others. In that context, I am confident that Mr Justice Quirke will devise a Scheme which will be straightforward and include every administrative assistance for applicants.

I know the women here today will be the first to agree that we should also remember that the greater number of women who were admitted to and worked in the laundries are, sadly, no longer with us. There are other women too, as the Report points out, who never want to tell anyone of their time in the Laundries. That, of course, is their right but I hope today that they too, if only privately, can take some comfort from this day of acknowledgement.

We accept that what we have done today may not completely satisfy everyone concerned. No matter how much we want to, we can't undo the hurt that has been done. But what we have tried to do, having listened to the response of the women concerned to the Report, is to attempt to resolve the issues faced by them in as fair and compassionate way as we can.

Beyond what we have set out today, the greatest respect we can pay to their stories of the laundries is that those stories, and the lessons from them, are never forgotten and are truly believed.