Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2009
243 Deputy Noel J. Coonan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the Act or legislation governing persons who were made serve and spend their time in the Magdalene laundries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47002/09]
View answerI understand that arrangements were occasionally made under which a female convicted of a criminal offence might be offered the choice of going to a Magdalene laundry rather than serving a prison sentence. Such arrangements had no statutory basis. A person charged with a criminal offence may in certain circumstances be remanded in custody by the courts pending trial or sentencing. The Criminal Justice Act 1960 provided that a person between 16 and 21 years of age who had been charged with criminal offences may be committed to custody to a remand institution (other than a prison) whose use for this purpose has been approved by the Minister. One Magdalene laundry was approved as a remand centre for young women who were aged between 16 and 21 years of age. That was St Mary Magdalene's Asylum, Lower Sean McDermott Street, Dublin.
