700 register for laundries redress

More than 700 women who were part of the Magdalene Laundries have contacted the Department of Justice in the week since the Taoiseach issued a State apology and announced a compensation fund.

The number registering their interest in being considered for compensation, benefits, or support is at the upper end of what the Coalition expected.

As a scheme to compensate them is devised, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said the four religious orders that ran the laundries needed “to think about taking part in the redress scheme to compensate them”.