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THE MINISTER FOR Justice has announced approval for legislation that will support survivors of Magdalene laundries.
Frances Fitzgerald announced that the Government has, this morning, agreed to her proposal for publication of the scheme of a new bill.
Commenting in the Dáil during Parliamentary Questions, the Minister further announced that, to date, lump sum payments totalling €12.8m have been made under the Magdalene Redress Scheme to 357 former residents of Magdalene Laundries, with further offers still being made.
The bill will give survivors:
Fitzgerald added that legal provision is being made for relatives to act on behalf of any of the women who do not have the capacity to act of their own behalf.
Judge John Quirke, in his report on the Magdalen Laundries, had recommended that legislation be introduced to give the women the same entitlement as those under the Hepatitis C scheme, something that has been approved, Fitzgerald said.
“Following the apology issued in the Dáil by an Taoiseach to former residents of the Magdalene laundries, the government committed to implementing all of the recommendations made by Mr. Justice Quirke in his report.”
Fitzgerald said that 754 applications have been received to date. 357 applicants have received their lump sum payment so far, at a cost of €12.8m. A further 106 formal offers have been made and letters of provisional assessment on the length of stay in a relevant institution have issued to an additional 35 applicants.
The announcement was broadly welcomed by Magdalene Survivors Together group. Spokesperson Steven O’Riordan told TheJournal.ie that they would wait until they had seen the legislation to fully welcoming it.
“We welcome it in the context that it’s about time it happened. Been waiting on this over a year. Hope that what the Quirke Report promised is delivered. We will be interested in seeing the legislation.”
It was also welcomed by Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFM Research), which said that it expects government to extend healthcare to women outside the jurisdiction.
The government said this evening that 146 applicants to the scheme are living abroad with around 131 of these resident in the UK. It is intended that the State will cover health insurance costs for survivors living in other jurisdictions.
It added that it is concerned about the situation of the many Magadalene survivors who still live in institutionalised settings.
“We note that half of the women who have applied to the scheme are yet to receive compensation,” continued JFM Research. “Many of the women are experiencing distressing delays and roadblocks in establishing dates of entry and exit, because of gaps in the religious orders’ records.”
It is now urging the Department of Justice to search all other relevant public records and to advertise the circumstances in which sworn affidavits will be accepted in cases of missing records.
- Additional reporting Aoife Barry and Hugh O’Connell
I’ll just have to check their website or social media while driving now for updates….
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: Could this possibly be connected? https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/02/07/jam-today-rte-and-aa-roadwatch/
@Here’s How Podcast: Full story on the podcast here: https://blog.hereshow.ie/2019/02/heres-how-82-rte-and-the-aa/
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: You might have to pay for this service now|
Elaine o Sullivan AA road watch ! I’m gonna miss her voice
@Marko: and Ester Moore ODonoghue
@Marko: Arwen Foley was the one for me.
@Alan McArdle: Lorraine Keane anyone?
@Bill Spill: I certainly would. Met her at electric office many years ago. What a lady
@Adrian O’Donnell: Electric Office? Were you having a picnic together?
@Marko: sometimes sounded like she said the A 3 times. Maybe she’d been out the night before.
No more rind-a-bits being busy so.
@theseadoc: nothing will stop the dunkettle interchange being blocked
@Stuart:
@Stuart:
@Stuart: ah the memories of random places we only know through this broadcast! They might not even exist half of them.
Typical big buyer slashing overheads, and never mind who it affects.
@John Nolan: Ridiculous comment. Are they not entitled to make business decisions in their own interests? Why don’t you set up a traffic notification service and provide it to radio stations if it means so much to you?
What ever became of electric Eddie, eye in the sky… Probably dead and buried somewhere on the Con Colbert road, the only location with traffic back in the day
@Shay Murray: it’s driver is stuck at the Red Cow Roundabout
Who’s going to provide traffic reports for the radio stations now ? It’s a major loss for serious road users. It was fantastic to hear the traffic reports on the hour after the news and if something was happening on the road your driving on, you were notified of it. Another backwards step. In the UK, you don’t even have to wait for the news, the traffic reports interrupt whatever station your listening to.
@Sean Walsh: that is because the traffic situation in the UK is an absolute ball breaker. Not even comparable to here. Or was a ball breaker, pre covid..
Laren behan … a beautiful voice !
How will I find my in into the meeja now, love island won’t take me, AA roadwatch gone, crimewatch auditions go nowhere, and I won’t stoop to fair city levels just yet!
At least that’s a few annoying voices off the airwaves.
Useless anyway. Radio reports are brutal. Dublin 103.2 for traffic reports in real time.
@Jimmy Reid: hasn’t been the same since John left though.
Was never helpful to me. Everytime it was the same report “traffic heavy on the dunnekettle” its always heavy.
@Michael: The AA are losing money – most if not all insurance companies or garages provide breakdown cover
Have they an app? They could seek to integrate their real time info with Google maps.
@HarveyLemonade: Where there’s a will, there’s a Waze.
@HarveyLemonade: you can see traffic build ups on Google maps and Apple maps if you Amber lines on maps that’s traffic build up and red lines is traffic at a stop. Also Apple maps is eventually bringing in incident reporting to Ireland like Waze where you can report traffic, accidents speed checks etc
Patnav on Nova will have to do.
A fantastic podcast on the whole situation.
https://blog.hereshow.ie/2019/02/heres-how-82-rte-and-the-aa/?ref=Broadsheet
Bring back The eye in the Sky ! Helicopter service.
They were always rubbish anyway. I well remember the bad old days when I lived in Kildare, and you’d regularly hit a monster traffic jam on the N7 that AA Roadwatch would conveniently have forgotten to mention.
Lorraine Keane, AA Roadwatch
Why? Nooooooooo!
No more helpful mentions of their names by RTÉ presenters in order to help them up on the “celebrity” bandwagon ” ah well Swings and rindeabouts I suppose.
No more traffic “Nooze” then?
Karen Chew all day long.
Anyone remember the ozzie girl,BUMPER TO BUMPER..
@Peter Bell: that does rind a bell Peter.
@Peter Bell: that does ring a bell Peter.
Can’t read websites while driving
Delighted.
The AA and RTÉ themselves are no longer of any relevance.
What motorist would wish to have constant blabbering on a radio, same format from the same sounding stations who constantly have to announce their frequency or name to stay relevant.
Get an iPod or a subscription to Spotify or similar.
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