Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2015
524. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 168 of 13 October 2015, if she will provide a breakdown, by institution, of the 879 women and girls who died in the Magdalen laundries between 1922 and 1996, given that the McAleese report merely offers a total figure, rather than a breakdown by laundry (details supplied). [37315/15]
View answerThe available statistics are those in the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries - otherwise known as the McAleese Report - which submitted its report to Government in February 2013. That Report is available on my Department's website - www.justice.ie. This Committee no longer exists. As advised in my response to Dáil Question No. 168 of 13th October 2015, the McAleese Report did not try to establish an exact number for deaths that took place in Magdalen Laundries. The Report states that these searches were complex and that there were gaps in available information as well as difficulties with identifying and matching records for a variety of reasons. Further, the Report points out that an examination of grave sites would not in itself provide a definitive figure for those who died in Magdalen laundries. Specific issues that had been raised around death registration, burials and exhumations are addressed in Chapter 16 of Report.
