By Vicki Hawthorne, Ireland Correspondent
The Irish government is expected to issue an official apology to women subjected to regimes of hard work and prayer in Catholic-run workhouses.
A report published two weeks ago found the state was involved in sending women viewed at the time to be "fallen" or immoral to live in Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996.
It is thought that the government, which has always denied direct involvement in the system, will release details of a compensation scheme for those who were held there.
Around 10,000 women were kept in 10 laundries around Ireland, where they worked long hours for no pay.
Many say they also sustained both physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the nuns who ran them.
Single mothers were often sent to the laundries as well as women who were poor or homeless, and those who had been found guilty of petty crimes.
Mr Kenny's apology was criticised After the McAleese report was published, Irish prime minister Enda Kenny told the country's parliament: "To those residents who went into the Magdalene laundries from a variety of ways, 26% from state involvement, I'm sorry for those people that they lived in that kind of environment."
However, Mr Kenny's statement did not go far enough for the women who survived the laundries.
Groups such as Magdalene Survivors Together and Justice for Magdalenes have long campaigned for a full apology from the government as well as compensation.
The Justice for Magdalenes group said the prime minister's statement fell "far short of the full and sincere apology deserved by the women who were incarcerated against their will in Ireland's Magdalene laundries".
The Irish parliament will debate the Magdalene Laundries and the McAleese report later.
The chairman of Magdalene Survivors Together, Steven O'Riordan, has said 20 women from the group will be in the public gallery of the house to listen to the debate and they expect to receive a full apology.
Survivor Maureen Sullivan, who will be there, said: "Who would have imagined that a little over seven years ago, I along with all these other women would be going to the Dail (the Irish parliament) to hear a leader of our country apologise for what happened to us?
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen but it looks like it will.
"It just goes to show that you must never give up, ever."
Justice for Magdalenes has proposed a benchmark lump sum of €100,000 (£86,200) for Magdalene survivors, in addition to a package of services including pensions and lost wages.
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