In response, the Irish government set up an inter-departmental committee, chaired by Senator Martin McAleese, to establish the facts of the Irish state's involvement with the Magdalene laundries.

BBC: Irish PM: Magdalene laundries product of harsh Ireland

The Irish government's decision to apologise to the women who worked in the Magdalene Laundries - workhouses run by nuns - has prompted members of the Bethany Home Survivors Group group to say they also want justice.

BBC: Bethany survivors want justice after Magdalene apology

About 10, 000 women worked in the so-called Magdalen, or Magdalene, Laundries over seven decades -- and more than a quarter of them were referred there by the state, for various reasons including by the courts as a condition of probation, according to the report.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Women were forced into Magdalene laundries for a crime as minor as not paying for a train ticket, the McAleese report found.

BBC: Magdalene laundries: UK women's 'fast settlement' calls