Sular leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh le mo cheist ba mhaith liom mo chomhbhrón a dhéanamh le teaghlach an oifigigh PSNI, Philippa Reynolds, a fuair bás oíche Dé Sathairn seo caite. I express our condolences to the family of the PSNI officer Philippa Reynolds, who was killed last Saturday night when her patrol car was hit by a stolen car. She was going about the business of protecting the community when that occurred.

The McAleese report documented evidence of the abuses and denials of human rights to women in the Magdalen laundries, and confirmed the State's complicity in the detention of these women and girls in a plethora of ways. Before that, the Ryan report detailed issues regarding forced unpaid labour, denial of liberty to women and the significant physical and emotional abuse which took place in the laundries. I was disappointed with the Taoiseach's initial response when an Teachta Mary Lou McDonald invited him to apologise to the Magdalen women, but I very much welcome his meeting yesterday with the survivors and his commitment to them to apologise on behalf of the State during next week's debate on the report. This is a very important step. The Government should consider also making a commitment to ensuring the future well-being of these women. Having met them, the Taoiseach will know that many of them are elderly. This should become a priority for the State. The issue of pensions should be resolved and an effective redress scheme should be put in place.

A number of laundries, including those in Dún Laoghaire, Galway, Stanhope Street and Summerhill in Wexford, were not included in Dr. McAleese's report, nor were the Bethany Homes, to which girls and young women were also sent by the State. The survivors of those institutions also suffered abuse and hardship. In addition to what I hope will be a watershed moment for the victims of the institutions whom the Taoiseach met, will the Government also undertake to investigate these other institutions and propose a solution that meets the survivors' needs?

Ar dtús, chas mé le cuid de na hoifigigh sinsearacha den PSNI ag an deireadh seachtaine agus rinne mé comhbhrón ar son an Rialtais agus ar son mhuintir na tíre as ucht bás Philippa Reynolds, go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a hanam. Bean óg a bhí inti a bhí an-bhríomhar san obair a bhí ar siúl aici. Aontaím leis an Teachta maidir le comhbhrón a dhéanamh lena teaghlach.

I hope every Member has read all 1,015 pages of the McAleese report. When it was published last week, I indicated there would be a proper debate on it next week in the House. That will take place. I read the report and yesterday, with the Tánaiste, I had the privilege of meeting a number of women who were in the Magdalen laundries. I hope before the weekend to carry out a couple of other engagements both here and abroad. This report deserves an understanding of the scale and depth of what happened. As the author of the report pointed out, it is not a simple issue, but is quite complex in respect of the various circumstances and directions through which people arrived at the Magdalen laundries and the difficulties they encountered. Fianna Fáil has tabled a motion on the matter. Having given a clear signal of what we wish to do in this regard, I would have thought a political motion tabled in this way showed scant respect for the author of the report and less respect for the persons it is about.

I would have thought everybody in the Oireachtas, of all parties and none, would have reflected on what was the best thing to do. I hope we can do this in the course of the next few days as we formulate our response to the Dáil debate which will be held next week on the McAleese report. I thank Deputy Gerry Adams for his comments on the meeting we had yesterday.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. We have met Magdalen laundry survivors during the years. As I am advised that Nora Connolly O'Brien, the daughter of James Connolly, raised the issue decades ago, it is not as if it was unknown. There are many issues which need to be dealt with. In a real republic these things should not happen, but they did. It is not the Taoiseach's fault and it did not happen on his watch, but the report was delivered on his watch. He is a decent person. I do not want to sound patronising, but he has a good heart. There is a significant opportunity to acknowledge that what was done was wrong. It is also important in terms of seeking redress, pensions and health care. One cannot happen without the other.

There are other cases. When I came here, I was foolish enough to say to our team that I thought the campaign on symphisiotomy could be won in this term. The barbarity of symphisiotomy, an issue on which Fine Gael and the Labour Party supported the victims while in opposition, has still not been resolved. The Government has a significant opportunity to make amends for what was done by others to the citizens involved. The issue of how people got there and whether they were sent by their parents is irrelevant. Either we believe in equality or we do not. If we do, every person who was a victim of the Magdalen laundry system, however they arrived there, needs the approach advocated by those who advocate on their behalf.

I found the meeting yesterday evening absolutely different in terms of the genuineness of the people concerned, the way they spoke, their stories, their personal accounts of their childhoods and their reflections 50 years on. The Irish Human Rights Commission carried out a report on the symphisiotomy issue four or five years ago. The Magdalen laundries were run by the religious orders. I do not want to say too much more about it, except to say I hope everybody who wants to contribute to next week's debate will do so with an attempt to understand all of the background and what happened and treat the issue with sensitivity and respect. It is probably very difficult to get all of this right. It has happened, but as one woman said to me, "There is a corridor in my mind and I never go into the room at the back because it is there every day; every day." The complexities and sensitivities range over a great deal of emotion and trauma. That is what we have to try to reflect in a Dáil debate. The State, as I said last week, should attempt in the best way it can to bring about a conclusion with a degree of fairness and sensitivity. That is what I hope we can address and I am sure the Deputy will contribute.