For those of us who have been involved in adoption activism over the past two decades, it often feels as though the Government is engaged in a war of attrition against adopted people, writes Claire McGettrick.

The Department of Justice is calculating payments for the newly expanded Magdalene redress scheme on the basis that “no child under the age of 12 years of age worked in a Magdalene Laundry” unless it can be proven otherwise.

Irish survivors of abuse will join international academics and activists in Boston today for a major conference on transitional justice.

The State is “perpetuating the abuse” suffered by victims of forced and illegal adoptions by refusing to grant adopted people full access to their personal files and birth records.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has apologised to Magdalene laundry survivors and pledged that the Government will address in full gaps, delays or disputes over their struggle for justice.

A number of requests by mother and baby home survivors to have their evidence heard in public have been refused by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

Let down yet again, ageing survivors of the Magdalene laundries have suffered unnecessary pain in the past few years, writes Claire McGettrick.

Seven vulnerable Magdalene laundry survivors have died without receiving a penny of the redress they were granted in 2013.

The Department of Justice failed to examine all available evidence when it wrongly refused some Magdalene laundry survivors access to redress payments.

More than €25m has been paid out to just over 680 Magdalene Laundry survivors under the redress scheme.

Magdalene campaigners have questioned why a State apology was given to laundry survivors when the Government denies the State has any liability in the matter.

The Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR) group has written to the Ombudsman expressing its long-held concerns over the Magdalene redress scheme.

The National Women's Council of Ireland will today present a special award to honour women and children who were kept in religious-run, state-funded institutions.

Campaigners have called on the Government to start excavations at other mother and baby home sites after Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said she is in favour of such a move.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and her department have been accused of misleading the UN by claiming the McAleese report made “no finding” in relation to State liability with regard to Magdalene Laundries.

Mother and baby home campaigners have said as many as 180 institutions that dealt with unmarried mothers and children need to be examined by the commission.

The ombudsman has launched an investigation into possible “evidence of maladministration” of the Magdalene redress scheme by the Department of Justice and Equality.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission has yet to decide whether to ask for an extension of its remit to examine other institutions.

The McAleese report is “neither accurate nor respectful” in the suffering women endured in Magdalene laundries, it has been claimed.

A group of dentists has hit out at what it claims is the Government’s “failure to honour” promises made to Magdalene laundry survivors on medical care.

The Bishop of Cork and Ross has backed the calls of campaigners to make the vandalised mass grave of Magdalene women at Sunday’s Well accessible to the public.

The Ombudsman has been criticised for its “bizarre” reasoning in refusing to uphold appeals from former residents of An Grianán seeking access to the Magdalene redress scheme.

The HSE will reissue medical cards sent to Magdalene survivors after complaints they identified the women as having been in a laundry.

Government representatives are facing a second day of questioning by a UN committee examining Ireland's human rights mechanisms today.

Magdalene laundry survivors have been told they can still apply for redress and avail of special medical cards.

Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR) has hit back at Government claims that it is issuing “factually incorrect” statements on the implementation of the Magdalene redress scheme.

Just 33 out of 187 Magdalene women listed on the headstone for High Park laundry in Glasnevin Cemetery are actually buried at that location, a study claims.

Just 72 of the almost 500 Magdalene survivors who have accepted redress will get the maximum amount of €100,000.

Over 1,600 women died in Magdalene laundries — more than double the figure cited by the McAleese report.

The terms of reference for the mother-and-baby home inquiry will be published following the first Cabinet meeting in the new year.

The Government was “conscious of the danger” of offering redress for Magdalene survivors just months before setting up the McAleese inquiry to investigate the issue.

Initial enthusiasm from campaigners that the inquiry would be as wide ranging as possible, has been replaced by a worried scepticism, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

Magdalene women are being forced accept smaller compensation payments because the State believes the religious orders over survivors regarding how long they spent in the laundries.

Some 186 survivors of the Magdalene laundries are now receiving payments under the Government’s new redress scheme.

I don’t know a single natural mother who willingly gave up her baby, writes Claire McGettrick.

Four social justice organisations are now calling for the inquiry into mother-and-baby homes to be widened to include Magdalene laundries and county homes.

Survivors of Magdalene laundries will begin to receive enhanced pensions and weekly top-up payments from the Department of Social Protection in the coming week, as part of the redress package designed by Mr Justice John Quirke.

Adoption, children’s and human rights organisations have welcomed the decision by the Department of Children to set up a statutory commission to investigate practices, deaths, illegal adoptions and vaccine trials at the country’s mother-and-baby homes.

Sixteen survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have sought a review of the amount of compensation they have been offered by the State.

Two of the four Orders which ran the Magdalene laundries have reaffirmed their refusal to offer any financial contribution to the compensation fund for survivors.

The Department of Justice has defended asking victims of the Magdalene laundries to sign waivers accepting “all the terms” of the a redress scheme which it has yet to fully legislate for.

Magdalene survivors living abroad are being told the minister for health is to consider looking after their health needs abroad as part of the planned redress scheme.

After decades of being ignored, survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have finally been offered a compensation scheme by the State for their years of slave labour.