The Committee set up to inquire into the Magdalene Laundries has found clear evidence of State involvement in the religious run work houses.
However it notes that there was a legal basis for the way the State operated.
The report written under the chairmanship of Senator Martin McAleese finds that more than a quarter of 10,000 women who entered the laundries were referred there by the State.
But it paints a more benign picture of life in the laundries than may be popularly believed.
'Sorry for the stigma'
The Taoiseach has stopped short of issuing a full apology to the women detained in the laundries.
Enda Kenny says he is sorry that the stigma of being in the laundries was not removed, sorry that people lived in the environment and sorry that it took until July 2011 to instigate the McAleese committe report.
The Taoiseach says people need to read the report which he says paints a picture of a harsh, uncompromising and authoritarian Ireland from the 1920s to the 1950s.
But Enda Kenny did not offer a full apology as many survivors had called for.
Religious congregations welcome report
The religious congregations who ran the Magdalene Laundries have welcomed publication of the committee report.
The Sisters of Mercy said they acknowledge and are saddened by the limitations of the care that was provided in the laundries.
The order said it was regrettable that the laundries had to exist at all.
The Sisters of Charity, who operated laundries in Donnybrook in Dublin and in Peacock Lane in Cork, have apologised unreservedly to women who felt hurt by their experience.
The Sisters said they would open their records to individual women to provide them with personal information they have on file.
Meanwhile the Good Shepherd Sisters said they were part of the system and culture of the time.
They said they acted in good faith providing a refuge and sincerely regret that women could have experienced hurt and hardship during their time in the laundries.
Some former residents of the Magdalene Laundries held a press conference at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin today, following the publication of the report.
