CAT/C/IRL/CO/2 whether these allegations resulted in prosecutions and convictions and on any sentences handed down to perpetrators, and include this information in the State party’s next report to the Committee; (c) Ensure that the State party continues to fulfil its obligation to ensure that victims of torture or ill-treatment obtain redress, including the means for as full a rehabilitation as possible. Investigations, accountability and redress in the context of the Magdalen laundries 25. While noting the measures taken by the State party to address allegations of illtreatment of women at the Magdalen laundries, including its creation of an ex gratia scheme that has provided over €25.5 million to 677 former Magdalen women to date, the Committee deeply regrets that the State party has not undertaken an independent, thorough and effective investigation into allegations of ill-treatment of women and children in the Magdalen laundries or prosecuted and punished the perpetrators, as recommended in its previous concluding observations. The Committee is concerned at reports that the State party has not undertaken sufficient efforts to uncover all available evidence of abuses held by private institutions, nor taken adequate steps to ensure that victims are able to access information that could support their claims because, in part, as the State party has acknowledged, “the records provided by the religious congregations were returned to them”. The Committee is also concerned that the State party’s ex gratia payment scheme does not apply to all women who worked in the Magdalen laundries and that survivors of the Magdalen laundries living outside Ireland may not be aware of its existence. The Committee also regrets that some of the recommendations made by Mr. Justice Quirke concerning redress for Magdalen survivors have not been fully implemented (arts. 2, 4, 12, 12, 14 and 16). 26. The State party should: (a) Undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of illtreatment of women at the Magdalen laundries that has the power to compel the production of all relevant facts and evidence and, if appropriate, ensure the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators; (b) Strengthen the State party’s efforts to ensure that all victims of illtreatment who worked in the Magdalen laundries obtain redress, and to this end ensure that all victims have the right to bring civil actions, even if they participated in the redress scheme, and ensure that such claims concerning historical abuses can continue to be brought “in the interests of justice”; take further efforts to publicize the existence of the ex gratia scheme to survivors of the Magdalen laundries living outside Ireland; fully implement the outstanding recommendations on redress made by Mr. Justice Quirke; promote greater access of victims and their representatives to relevant information concerning the Magdalene laundries held in private and public archives; and provide information on these additional measures in the State party’s next report to the Committee. Accountability for past institutional abuses: Mother and Baby Homes 27. While the Committee appreciates the State party’s creation of a Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in February 2015, it is concerned at reports that its terms of reference do not allow it to investigate all institutions in the country at which abuses, including forced and illegal adoptions, may have occurred and that following the expected conclusion of the Commission’s work in February 2018, its archives will be closed and will not be made available to the public (arts. 2, 4, 12, 13, 14 and 16). 28. The State party should ensure that it carries out an independent, thorough and effective investigation into any allegations of ill-treatment, including cases of forced adoption, amounting to violations of the Convention at all of the Mother and Baby Homes and analogous institutions, that perpetrators of any such acts are prosecuted and punished and that all victims of violations of the Convention obtain redress. The State party should ensure that information concerning abuses in these institutions are made accessible to the public to the greatest extent possible. 9