Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland
Magdalenes

FF table Dáil motion to call for formal Magdalene apology

TDs will vote next Wednesday on whether to support a State apology, and to set up a unit to consider redress schemes.

FIANNA FÁIL has tabled a Dáil motion seeking a formal State apology to the women committed to Magdalene Laundries.

The motion, which will be debated on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, calls on the Taoiseach to apologise to the women “on behalf of the Oireachtas and all citizens of the State, for what they had to endure”.

It also calls for a new unit to be set up at the Department of Justice “to co-ordinate the remaining aspects of the State’s response” to the inter-departmental report published this week.

Perhaps crucially, this unit would examine “all forms of redress which should be provided”.

Next week’s debates on Fianna Fáil’s motion come in advance of a full Dáil debate on the contents of the McAleese report, which has been pencilled in for the following week. Most of next week’s Dáil business concerns a motion on the promissory note deal.

“It is important that the issue of an apology for these women is addressed in a timely way in the Oireachtas,” said Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman Niall Collins, the chief signatory of the motion.

“The McAleese report published last week confirmed State involvement in the Magdalene Laundries.  No attempt to play down the findings of the report can or should distract from that fact.”

Collins said the Government’s immediate response was “deeply disappointing” and the failure to issue a formal apology had left the survivors of Magdalene abuse “angry and let down”.

This week Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who was a cabinet minister when a redress scheme was set up for abuse victims in residential institutions, apologised for his former government’s stance that the Magdalene institutions were private bodies independent of any State involvement.

Read: Europe’s human rights chief says Magdalenes deserve State apology

More: “An apology needs to be addressed” – Labour puts pressure on Taoiseach

Plus: This is how the world reacted to the Magdalene Laundries report

Your Voice
Readers Comments
50
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.