Church institutions behind delays in payments for laundry survivors
Ellen Coyne
March 18 2019,
The Times
Dozens of Magdalene laundry survivors who were wrongly refused access to a redress scheme are now waiting for religious institutions to hand over documents so that they can be paid what they are owed by the state.
So far, only seven women have been paid under a government redress scheme for women forced to work in the laundries who were wrongly excluded from a compensation scheme set up in 2013.
There are fears that the women, who have spent years campaigning for justice after they were forced to work in the state’s 12 Magdalene laundries, could die before they are awarded redress. Charlie Flanagan, the justice minister, said he was “anxious” that applications were dealt with quickly.
Dozens of women forced to work in the laundries were excluded from the government’s redress scheme after the state claimed that they were not eligible because they did not live where they worked. Many of them, including those who worked in the laundries as children, had lived in industrial schools connected to or on the same grounds as the laundries.
Last summer, in a decision affecting dozens of women who had been sent to religious industrial schools as girls and forced to carry out unpaid labour, the government finally agreed to compensation, even if they had been staying in an adjoining institution.
There have been 97 claims for compensation made since that decision, 52 of which were by women turned down by the original redress scheme. So far, only seven people have been awarded redress, while a further four offers have been made but not yet accepted. One person has withdrawn from the scheme, and a further ten have been told they are not eligible for it.
Of the 75 remaining applications, 60 are being processed by the Department of Justice and information is pending from religious institutions in 46 cases. The department is waiting for the other 15 women to fill out relevant forms.
In a further five cases, the department is waiting for more information from the women themselves or from another organisation.
The government said that it has interviewed 11 women as part of the application process, but said this was solely for the applicant’s benefit.
In response to questions from the independent TD Catherine Connolly, Mr Flanagan said the interviews were to “facilitate a fair assessment of a claim where there is insufficient or conflicting documentation available.
“Each application is assessed individually on its merits and a decision is made as to whether on the balance of probabilities the applicant comes within the scope of the scheme”.
Mr Flanagan said that he was “anxious that all applications are dealt with as quickly as possible”.
So far, more than €26 million has been awarded to 700 women who lived and worked in the laundries. Redress is paid in lump sums, but the state’s compensation also includes pension-type payments and health benefits.
Mary Cavner, 79, who worked from the age of 11 for seven years in a Magdalene laundry, said that she feared she might die before she was compensated. She said it was “criminal” that she was still waiting for redress after years of trying to convince the state that she had worked in the Good Shepherd laundry in Sunday’s Well, Cork.
Her family, who live near Bournemouth on the south coast of England, have been fighting on her behalf. Mandie Stannard, one of her five children, said that the family’s “deepest fear” was that she would die before being compensated. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/church-institutions-behind-delays-in-payments-for-laundry-survivors-29pblf72p
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