Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Approximately 20 years ago, my very beautiful, lovely, happy, first cousin Marie became ill with cancer of the cervix. After what seemed like a very short period, that is, a couple of years, and an awful lot of suffering which she bore very bravely, she died and left her three boys behind to be reared by their father on his own. This is a very common story of what happens to women, particularly women who are younger or in the middle stages of life when their children are still dependants, a time which in many families is probably the best for a couple and their children.

As we know, families cope and no matter how awful the situation is, they carry on for the children. It is very hard to lose one's partner, wife or mother to such a killer disease. Although treatment has progressed, as any cancer specialist will tell us, it is still a very difficult disease that no parent would wish their child to be at risk of developing. In all the debate, it may not have really got through just how difficult this cancer can be and how devastating it is for a family to lose usually a mother as a result of it.

I did not know much about cervical cancer until my cousin lost her life to it. My aunt Kay, Marie's mother, knew even less and, to be honest, we were all bewildered, particularly her children and her husband. Some 20 years later, we do know much more and we know that it is possible to be vaccinated against this potentially killer disease. While the cure rates and treatment have improved and the hospice service in Ireland has improved, it is far better if we can vaccinate people so that the risk of getting this killer disease is very significantly reduced if not completely wiped out. The vaccine is highly effective, as Deputy Kelly said. If it is made available to boys, this will reduce the infection rate and the death rate.

This is not a party political issue of any kind. We are putting this motion forward because I suspect that many of us in this Chamber know at first hand - whether it is a relative, a friend or a neighbour - women who have lost their lives to this very difficult disease. I know that parents worry about their teenage children, particularly nowadays in the context of social media information. The evidence is compelling that using the vaccine will enable the public health system in Ireland, possibly, over a period of time, to almost totally eliminate this killer disease. We know this because it has happened in other countries. To parents who will be thinking about this coming up to a new school year in the autumn, I ask them to please think of all the Maries in Ireland who lost their lives to this killer disease, and to think that 20 years from now, they will want their current teenager to be protected against it.

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