Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has criticised the refusal by the Catholic nuns who owned the Magdalene Laundries to contribute to the Government's multi-million euro compensation scheme for survivors of the institutions.
The Government is set to pay between €34.5m and €58m to the Magdalene survivors.
Mr Shatter said the Government believes the congregations have a moral obligation to make a contribution.
The nuns have offered to help the women in other ways, such as caring for about one hundred of them in residential settings.
A spokesman could not say how much of that care was already funded by the State.
The religious orders at the centre of the dispute are the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the owners of Dublin's High Park and Sean McDermott Street residential laundries; the Sisters of Mercy in Galway and Dun Laoghaire; the Good Shepherd Sisters in Cork, Waterford, New Ross and Limerick; and the Irish Sisters of Charity, best-known for their facility in Donnybrook in Dublin.
The McAleese Report, published earlier this year, said the women and girls lived and worked in very harsh conditions and were not paid or educated.
Groups representing survivors of the Magdalene Laundries have criticised the religious congregations over the refusal to contribute to the fund.
Stephen O'Riordan of the group Magdalene Survivors Together said he was flabbergasted by the decision given that the four orders of nuns were responsible for most of the injustice suffered by the girls and women.
Sally Mulready of the Irish Women's Survivors' Network expressed concern at the decision. She said she was concerned that the nuns were saying they did not think much of the women's plight.
The Department of Justice says it has received application forms from at least 212 women seeking to benefit from the redress fund and supports-in-kind.
Mr Shatter told the Dáil this was the number of forms which had reached his officials by close of business yesterday.
Blank forms were sent to over 600 women who had expressed an interest in availing of the support package.
