Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 June 2013
746. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the reasons the institution at Summerhill, County Wexford has been excluded from the Justice Quirke redress process; if he will consider extending the scheme to include the residents of the Summerhill laundry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27925/13]
View answer747. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will meet with a person (details supplied) in County Wexford to discuss the inclusion of the laundry at Summerhill in County Wexford in the redress process currently being undertaken by Justice Quirke. [27926/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 746 and 747 together.
The Government decision of 19 February relates to Magdalen Laundries which were examined by the Inter-Departmental Committee set up to establish the facts of State involvement. The House of Mercy in Summerhill, County Wexford was one of a number of residential centres run by the Sisters of Mercy, where, generally at the request of their parents, young girls were taken in following primary school with a view to gaining experience and training that would facilitate their subsequent employment. I have no reason to doubt that there was a "commercial" laundry attached to Summerhill. There were a wide variety of institutions which had laundries run by different religious congregations and no decision has been made to include them all within the scope of the Magdalen Scheme. I will be making a decision within the next few weeks on Summerhill. Unfortunately due to heavy commitments on my time, particularly arising from EU Presidency duties, I am not in a position the meet the person in question in the immediate future.
