Shatter: Asylum seekers not treated like Magdalenes

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has described as “grossly misleading” a correlation between the lives endured by residents of the Magdalene laundries and the thousands of asylum seekers currently living in direct provision centres.

Mr Shatter was responding to comments by Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly that Taoiseach Enda Kenny may one day have to issue an apology to asylum seekers along the lines of the one he offered to survivors of Magdalene laundries.

In a written Dáil response, Mr Shatter said: “I do not accept the attempted correlation between the residents of direct provision accommodation centres and past residents of industrial schools or Magdalene laundries.