IRELAND
RTE News
Minister for Justice and Equality Frances Fitzgerald has promised to examine the option of funding “complementary therapies” for Magdalene survivors.
In a statement to RTÉ News, her department explained that the therapies were excluded from a special medical card scheme approved by the Dáil yesterday.
It said this was because Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has reservations about providing and funding them through the health service.
The Department of Justice says Ms Fitzgerald, on a personal level, is open to the benefit of such therapies.
She said she would fund them through a separate scheme run on an administrative rather than a statutory basis.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that less than 20% of the deceased residents of a Magdalene Laundry in Dublin are buried in the plot marked by a headstone bearing their names.
The Justice for Magdalene Research group – which published the finding after researching Glasnevin Cemetery’s archives – has called on the Commission of Investigation into scandals surrounding Mother and Baby Homes to investigate the burial practices of the religious congregations which ran the High Park Laundry.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.