Harney to raise question on laundries

MINISTER for Health Mary Harney has agreed to raise the question of the state’s ambivalent role in sending women to Magdalene laundries at a forthcoming Cabinet meeting.

The move is being seen as a minor breakthrough by the Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) group who have been lobbying ministers and TDs for nearly a year in an effort to receive an official apology from the State and a redress system for these now elderly women.

Ms Harney also said she would attempt to establish via census records the numbers of women who were held in such establishments.

The religious orders have access to such files, but will not open them to the women. It’s believed that the State may have their own files documenting the women that they sent there through the Departments of Justice and Public Health and the health boards. JFM yesterday asked the minister to raise the issue of file release with the four religious orders who ran the laundries.

At yesterday’s meeting, JFM presented evidence that the then Department of Local Government and Public Health transferred women from mother-and-baby homes to the laundries. They also supplied evidence that the nuns were paid a capitation grant for each woman by the health boards. It’s understood that Ms Harney said she would examine these records further.