Yesterday afternoon I attended a press conference organised by Justice for Magdalenes Research, supported by Amnesty International, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the National Women's Council. They all acknowledged the Taoiseach's apology, its integrity, that it was heartfelt and gave so much hope to the women. That apology led to the work of Mr. Justice Quirke and the recommendations he made in his report which were accepted here in June 2013. The ladies of the Magdalen laundries expected that all of those recommendations and proposals would be put into action.

The Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014 is not honouring all that was recommended by Mr. Justice Quirke. For example, he found that a significant number of women faced difficulties managing their affairs, many of whom are living in institutions or nursing homes and he recommended certain things for those women who were lacking full capacity so that the payments would be for their benefit. The Bill, however, makes no provision for the appointment of care representatives to ensure that this happens. Mr. Justice Quirke was very clear in his first recommendation that the Magdalen women would have access to the full range of services currently enjoyed by holders of the HAA, Health Amendment Act, card. A range of services provided by that card are being denied to the ladies from the Magdalen laundries. Such cards are known as enhanced cards. I heard last night, after the press conference, that enhanced cards will be made available but I would like the Taoiseach to confirm today that this is the case for the ladies from the Magdalen laundries because it might require a policy order from the Taoiseach to ensure that this happens.

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for her comments and I can confirm that for her. I should remind the House that this was a matter that was neglected for over 60 years. This Government listened very carefully to those women who were in the Magdalen laundries. We asked Mr. Martin McAleese to prepare a report on this and subsequently appointed Mr. Justice Quirke to draw up an appropriate scheme for the Magdalen women. The Government is fully committed to implementing in full the Quirke report. Under the scheme, women are entitled to a payment of €11,500 to €100,000, depending on their length of stay. In addition, they receive top-up payments of €100 weekly if they are under pension age and up to €230.30 when aged 66 or over, depending on other State payments. To date, a decision has been made in 87% of cases and 495 applicants have received payments totalling €18 million.

Mr. Justice Quirke also recommended that the women should have access to an enhanced medical card, as Deputy O' Sullivan pointed out. He also specifically recommended that legislation be introduced to give effect to that recommendation. The new Bill to be introduced will provide an enhanced medical card. The legislation is modelled on the Health Amendment Act of 1996. The Bill was published in December and is expected to be introduced in the Dáil later this month.

I note the statements to which Deputy O'Sullivan referred, attributed to the Justice for Magdalenes group, suggesting that the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014 only provides regular medical cards to the women as opposed to the HAA card recommended by Mr. Justice Quirke. To be clear, Mr. Justice Quirke in his report recommended that the women receive medical services equivalent to those provided to the holders of HAA cards. He also pointed out that not all of the services described in the guide may be directly relevant to the Magdalen women and any comparable guide for the Magdalen women would require suitable adaptation. The new Bill is similar to the 1996 Act and specifically provides for GP and surgical services; payment for drugs, medicines and medical and surgical appliances; nursing services; home help; dental, ophthalmic and aural services; counselling services; and chiropody and physiotherapy services. There will also be no requirement to pay the statutory charge for public acute hospital in-patient services.

The 2014 scheme is focused on the medical needs of the women under the scheme. Many of the services are accessible through referral by a doctor or nurse. The only substantive services that are not included under the new scheme are non-conventional therapies. The HSE funding of expenditure by Positive Action on complimentary therapies such as angel healing, emotional freedom techniques and dancing the spiral led to severe criticism and Positive Action itself was wound up in May 2014. The Minister does not wish to see the important medical supports that will be provided by the enhanced medical card undermined in any way by the inclusion of controversial, unconventional therapies. I hope that answers Deputy O'Sullivan's question.

It is good that the Taoiseach has confirmed that the enhanced card will be available to the ladies from the Magdalen laundries but it is a shame that once again, stress and tension was brought into their lives because of the fact that they were not clear on that point. They have acknowledged what has been done to date and progress has been made, there is no doubt about that. Why can we not get it 100% right instead of 60% or 70%, so that all of the outstanding issues are addressed?

The McAleese report was disappointing because it had a very narrow remit. I listened yesterday to many stories from the ladies from the Magdalen laundries which were not covered by the McAleese report, which was also pointed out by the UN Committee Against Torture. There are issues outstanding and as the Government is making progress, it should go for 100% progress instead of falling short. Those ladies deserve much more.

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for her comments. In many cases, this information was already in the public domain but I hope I have clarified it for the Deputy and the women who were concerned now.

In respect of the last portion of the Deputy's question concerning other women in Magdalen homes, elements of that are being addressed under the mother and baby homes commission of investigation that was set up by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, particularly in respect of women who were in Magdalen homes who were exiting State services or State support.

In respect of the Deputy's question about the enhanced medical card and the services provided, I hope the position will be absolutely clear for those women who were the subject of the report on Magdalen homes and in respect of whom the State wanted to be as generous and flexible as possible in providing a wide range of services. These women are getting on in years and deserve recognition and support from the State.