Plans to turn Dublin's last Magdalene laundry into a memorial site are set to be approved by councillors today.
The Office of Public Works would be in charge of making sure the former residents of mother and baby homes, industrial schools and other institutions are remembered properly. The building on Sean McDermott Street only closed its doors in 1996 after more than 11,000 were incarcerated in laundries across the country.
It had previously been handed over to Dublin City Council in the nineties which planned to use the site for housing. However, a deal to build 179 apartments on the site later collapsed.
Read more: Former Magdalene laundry on Sean McDermott Street to be turned into 'site of conscience'
In 2018, a hotel group called Toyoko Inn offered €14.5 million for the site with the intention of building a 350-bed hotel, student accommodation and shops. A sale of the site to a Japanese hotel chain was later blocked by Dublin City councillors.
Councillors instead agreed that the site should be used to "recognise the social, cultural and personal history" that the Magdalene laundry had for many residents of Dublin. If the transfer of ownership to the OPW is approved then it will be responsible for making plans for the site and getting planning permission.
The project is expected to take five years.
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