THE CHAIRMAN of the independent interdepartmental committee to be
established into the treatment of women and girls in Magdalene laundries
will be appointed within the next 10 days, Minister for Justice Alan
Shatter has told the Dáil.
He also said consultations with the
religious congregations and representatives of those who lived in the
laundries would be held shortly.
The Minister was “committed to
ensuring” investigation of the “extent to which the State had an
engagement of any description” with the laundries, where thousands of
women were sent against their will.
It has emerged that the
Departments of Justice and Agriculture, as well as Áras an Uachtaráin,
Guinness, major Dublin hotels, Clery’s, the Gaiety Theatre and Dr
Steevens’s hospital in the capital were regular customers of the
laundries.
It also emerged that the Health Service Executive gave €87
million between 2006 and 2010 to three of the four religious
congregations that ran the laundries between 1922 and 1996.
Mr
Shatter told the Dáil “we regard it as absolutely important and crucial
that any information or documentation available to Government that gives
an insight into departmental involvement or contact with the Magdalene
laundries be brought together and put into a coherent and detailed
narrative”.
All departments involved will be represented on the committee.
The
Minister wanted to “ensure records are made available by the
congregations and are accessible”, and that a progress report was made
within three months.
Asked by Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Dara
Calleary whether the chairman would be someone with a legal background,
Mr Shatter said “it will be a person of stature whose independence could
not be open to question”.
Mr Calleary asked during justice
questions why the Minister did not establish a full statutory inquiry
into the Magdalene laundries, but opted instead for a limited
investigation.
Mr Shatter said that “under our legal system,
statutory inquiries have no role to play in the prosecution of offences –
nor do they have a role in determining enforceable rights to
compensation”.
He added that the UN Committee Against Torture “did
not specifically recommend the establishment of a statutory inquiry”.
Its recommendations “clearly envisage criminal investigations leading to
prosecutions where appropriate”.
Any complaint of a possible criminal
offence was a matter for the Garda to fully investigate and “facilitate
any prosecution that should ensue”.
In early June the UN committee
issued “observations” following its first examination of Ireland’s
human rights record.
In a section dealing with women committed to
Magdalene laundries run by religious orders, the committee called for a
“prompt, independent and thorough investigation” into all allegations of
torture, and other “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
allegedly committed” in the laundries.
Mr Shatter said it was “essential to establish the true facts and circumstances relating to the laundries as a first step”.