THE CHAIRMAN of the independent interdepartmental committee to be established into the treatment of women and girls in Magdalene laundries will be appointed within the next 10 days, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has told the Dáil.

He also said consultations with the religious congregations and representatives of those who lived in the laundries would be held shortly.

The Minister was “committed to ensuring” investigation of the “extent to which the State had an engagement of any description” with the laundries, where thousands of women were sent against their will.

It has emerged that the Departments of Justice and Agriculture, as well as Áras an Uachtaráin, Guinness, major Dublin hotels, Clery’s, the Gaiety Theatre and Dr Steevens’s hospital in the capital were regular customers of the laundries. It also emerged that the Health Service Executive gave €87 million between 2006 and 2010 to three of the four religious congregations that ran the laundries between 1922 and 1996.

Mr Shatter told the Dáil “we regard it as absolutely important and crucial that any information or documentation available to Government that gives an insight into departmental involvement or contact with the Magdalene laundries be brought together and put into a coherent and detailed narrative”.

All departments involved will be represented on the committee.

The Minister wanted to “ensure records are made available by the congregations and are accessible”, and that a progress report was made within three months.

Asked by Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Dara Calleary whether the chairman would be someone with a legal background, Mr Shatter said “it will be a person of stature whose independence could not be open to question”.

Mr Calleary asked during justice questions why the Minister did not establish a full statutory inquiry into the Magdalene laundries, but opted instead for a limited investigation.

Mr Shatter said that “under our legal system, statutory inquiries have no role to play in the prosecution of offences – nor do they have a role in determining enforceable rights to compensation”.

He added that the UN Committee Against Torture “did not specifically recommend the establishment of a statutory inquiry”. Its recommendations “clearly envisage criminal investigations leading to prosecutions where appropriate”. Any complaint of a possible criminal offence was a matter for the Garda to fully investigate and “facilitate any prosecution that should ensue”.

In early June the UN committee issued “observations” following its first examination of Ireland’s human rights record. In a section dealing with women committed to Magdalene laundries run by religious orders, the committee called for a “prompt, independent and thorough investigation” into all allegations of torture, and other “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment allegedly committed” in the laundries.

Mr Shatter said it was “essential to establish the true facts and circumstances relating to the laundries as a first step”.