Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to one point. Otherwise, we would be doubling up. My amendment is similar to Deputy Donnelly's. It does the same thing, more or less, just written in a different way. I welcome the Minister's amendment. It is very good and was suggested by me and others, so I am glad that the Minister has taken it on board. I remember the day when he walked into the Dáil after a good bit of probing and we found out about the extra 1,000 or more women affected by the disconnect between CervicalCheck's records and those of the National Cancer Registry. We have gone through ad nauseamhow in the name of God that happened.

The Bill is too restrictive in terms of which women can participate.

As I said on Second Stage, I have concerns about this legislation and I am not sure I would recommend that somebody use this tribunal as it is currently constituted. I say this having gained a lot of knowledge from discussions with patient representatives, who would also not necessarily advocate it at this time. In principle, we all want the tribunal to work and to be effective but we have to make sure that women and their families see it as the best route, and that it is as inclusive as possible.

My amendment states: "In page 6, lines 34 and 35, to delete "as part of the retrospective CervicalCheck cytology clinical audit" and substitute ", whether as part of the retrospective CervicalCheck cytology clinical audit or otherwise"." A cohort of women, as the previous speaker said, are outside this and have been almost blindsided by the fact that they could have been advised not to go through the RCOG review, for many different reasons. Because they did not go through it, they now do not have access. That cannot happen and we have to find a solution. They have to have the option.

The tribunal does not have to be held up because of this, though the Minister said what he said for the right reasons. Will it be held up in any case, on account of the appeal of the Ruth Morrissey judgment? I disagree with this and I have spoken at length on the matter. There is now a window to deal with this issue because it is likely that the judgment will not be made until the autumn. We can pass the legislation but we can do so with amendment, whether it is mine or Deputy Donnelly's or, indeed, something the Minister proposes with which we can agree. A mechanism will have to be found in the current vacuum, which has been created by the Ruth Morrissey case, to deal with the women who are outside the process. We do not have an option in this regard. This has to happen. We need a mechanism to put into the Bill and the women in question need to be written to and given the opportunity, with a deadline of course. We need to see how many women are affected and then deal with that.