Mr Justice John Quirke has been charged by the Government with
establishing “how best to support” the survivors of the Magdalene
laundries.According to Justice Minister Alan Shatter, Judge Quirke “is being asked to advise on the establishment of a scheme under the fund to make payments to individuals”.
The scheme will take into account work undertaken in the laundries without pay, and the judge will advise on the nature and amount of payments to be made out of the fund.
He will also “set the procedure for the determination of applications”. This report on a non-adversarial scheme is to be drawn up within three months.
Mr Justice Quirke is president of the Law Reform Commission having retired from the bench last year.
He chaired a forum on turf cutting last year, proposing a resolution that saw the Government double the compensation payable to bog owners in the year after they stop cutting turf on raised bogs.
The deal, worth €23,000 in total to affected landowners, came after two years of dogged refusal by turfcutters to stop cutting on the bogs despite EU conservation laws dictating they stop two years previous.
John Quirke became a senior counsel in 1984, was appointed a high court judge in 1997 and managed the personal injury list. He was a member of the board of the Courts Service from 2003 to 2009.