James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach was wrong when he said that 3,680 pre-cancers cannot be averted. He was wrong when he said that 111 cancers cannot be avoided. It is particularly the Taoiseach who is wrong when he replied to Deputy Kenny this morning that 51 deaths would not be averted. In fact, there will be 52 deaths, according to HIQA, his own Health Information and Quality Authority.

A Member said here today that Fine Gael is being populist. I will be populist every time if it saves lives. The decision of this Government to deprive women of the facility of cervical screening is an indictment, particularly during a period of economic boom. We have asked where this money could be found. HIQA has said the vaccination programme could be done for €9.7 million. The Minister is trying to tell us we cannot find €10 million out of €16,000 million. What about the bonuses for the HSE bosses, the consultancy fees for PPARS, the €110 million in legal fees, the €300 million on travel in the HSE? These are just some of the areas in which a less lazy Minister for Health and Children might have looked before she picked on the elderly, the disabled and the young. With regard to e-voting machines, the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Noel Dempsey, commented, "What is €50 million in the overall scheme of things?". That would pay for five years of this programme.

It boils down to a Government and its priorities, a society and its morals. This is not the island that Pádraig Pearse died for or for which Éamon de Valera and Michael Collins risked their lives. This is not an Ireland that leaves the weak behind and exposes our young people like this Government wishes to do. Even in Famine times, neighbours helped each other out. What has gone wrong with this Government that it can allow itself become so detached, that it becomes consumed by fiscal rectitude and everything else takes second place?

Deputy McDaid spoke earlier and I commend him and I hope he will vote for this motion and go the whole way rather than halfway up the road. Members on the opposite side of the House may be looking into his or her daughter's eyes in a few years and explaining why her best friend has cervical cancer because he or she would not take action to protect her, or why the wife of his or her son may have cervical cancer. We in this House all know that we will vaccinate our children — we will protect our children. Again, it will be the poor who will lose out. We are at a defining moment. Just when we think the Government cannot sink any lower, it scores another own goal. If one believes in equality, social inclusion and social justice, this should be a case of one for all and all for one, as it is across the map of Europe, which I demonstrated. However, if the motion falls tonight, it is clearly a case that this Government believes in an "I'm all right, Jack" approach to the children of today and the women of tomorrow.

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