The continued refusal of the Government to include former residents of the Bethany Homes and the Magdalene Laundries under the provisions of the Residential Institutional Redress Scheme is a running sore according the Labours Kathleen Lynch TD.
Despite continual calls The Department of Education has refused again and again to allow these institutions to be included in the list of qualifying Institutions for the Redress Schemes.
As a result, the survivors of have been deprived of the opportunity of having their case heard and of obtaining some justice and redress for the abuse they suffered as young, innocent and vulnerable children.
In recent times some tenacious survivors and dedicated researchers have managed to piece together the grim picture of what happened in these bleak places. As a result, it is now becoming clearer and clearer that these institutions were to all intents and purposes, places of detention, and that as such, ‘residents’ were effectively sentenced by servants of the state, to periods of confinement therein.
Kathleen Lynch TD as a first step, the Tanaiste must now meet with the survivors of the Bethany Home and the Magdalene Laundries so that she can get some kind of understanding as to how frustrated they now feel.
“The government must do the decent thing and end this outrage” Deputy Kathleen Lynch said.